INDIA, June 19, 2017 (First Post): [HPI is posting several stories today on the impact of the new GST tax on Hindu institutions. There are some descrepancies between the reports.]
A whopping US$7.75-15.5 million Goods and Service Tax (GST) burden stares at the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) which manages the world’s richest temple of Lord Venkateswara at Tirumala. This is thanks to the flagship tax reform regime of the Modi government – GST – that rolls out from 1 July. The ancient Vaishnavite shrine has all along been exempted from sales tax, wealth tax and income tax besides VAT by the Centre and state governments in the past and the current mandatory slapping of GST on temples is annoying a lot of people. “The ruling BJP and NDA spent thousands of crores on cleaning river Ganga and building Ram temple at Ayodhya but is slapping such a huge burden on Hindu devotees,” said C. Rangarajan, president of Telangana Archaka Samakhya, an association of priests.
There are 3,000 temples in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, of which over 70 percent will come under the tax net of $31,000 annual revenue. So far, most temples enjoyed exemption from VAT, by the respective state governments. This power has been withdrawn thanks to the GST regime and made it mandatory for these temples to be taxed. There has been a wave of protests and outbursts from pious and devout Hindus in the recent past over this. The temple of Lord Venkateswara at Tirumala managed by the TTD will be worst hit. It has a footfall of almost 100,000 devotees per day and a Hundi collection of $309,000-463,000 daily. GST will now onwards be slapped on rest-houses and services including arjita sevas and special darshan tickets.
More at “source” above.