BENGALURU: The Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) announced on Sunday that it recovered over Rs 700 crore in corpus funds from the Income Tax Department (ITD) following litigation that spanned about 14 years.
The I-T Department had seized the funds during the 2012-13 academic year. According to a statement shared by the university, under the RTI Act, VTU pursued the legal battle and succeeded in recovering the funds.
“In 2012-13, ITD issued a notice to VTU demanding payment of Rs 250 crore in income tax from the time the university was established. The Department argued that VTU had not obtained tax exemption under Section 12(A) of the Income Tax Act and, therefore, had to pay the tax dues. Although VTU challenged the matter in court, the ITD succeeded at every stage of the case, from the Income Tax Tribunal to the Supreme Court,” read the statement.
At the time, VTU accounts were seized and the university had a total corpus of Rs 450 crore in various bank accounts. The funds had been accumulated from examination fees, fees collected from affiliated colleges and money reimbursed every year by KEA. Along with the Rs 250 crore belonging to the university, VTU has now recovered an amount exceeding Rs 700 crore.
The university administration has decided to use the recovered funds for the salaries of university staff. The university will keep the money deposited in a nationalised bank for a decade. From the 11th year onwards, the interest income generated from the deposit will be used to pay the salaries of the staff.
“We came to know that the university had applied for tax exemption under Section 12(A) as early as 1999. However, there were no documents available to prove this. Finally, we filed an RTI application before the ITD and obtained the 1999 entry register. Through this, we are now recovering our university’s money,” said Vice-Chancellor Prof S Vidyashankar.