It is usually after the monsoon that Durga Puja begins to dominate every kind of discourse in Kolkata. But it’s just January and the focus is already on the week-long autumn festival.
Income Tax notices sent to about 40 big-budget Durga Pujas in the city has triggered a debate whether the thousands of Pujas held in the State should be brought under the ambit of taxation.
The development comes at a time when Tapati Guha Thakurta, a professor of history at the Centre for Study in Social Sciences (CSSS), is busy preparing a proposal for enlisting of Durga Puja in the UNESCO Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage. Evolving over hundreds of years, the Durga Puja has now turned out be one of biggest cultural extravaganzas in the country — even the world — with art installations adorning nearly every nook and cranny of Kolkata and adjoining areas.
Ms. Guha Thakurta, who is preparing a dossier for the Ministry of Culture, said that the festival should be part of the UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritage as its history and the scale at which it is organised is like no other festival in the world. In a meeting with different stake holders in Kolkata on December 28 last year, she said that Durga Puja was not only a thriving festival, with a number of unique selling points, but also an inclusive festival which sees participation of all people.
And just at this time when people from different walks of life are coming together to seek international recognition for the festival, a number of big-budget Durga Puja committees in the city are busy explaining their accounts to IT officials. A notice was served to these committees under Section 133(6) of the IT Act and committee members were urged to appear before the officials.
Partho Ghosh, president of Forum for Durgotsav, which has over 300 members, said that representatives of different Durga Pujas have told IT officials that they will submit all necessary documents from the 2019 Durga Puja festival season.
“Durga Pujas are not a profit-seeking venture. What we maintain is the record of income and expenses of the Pujas. Now what the income tax is suggesting that we deduct the TDS (tax deduction at source) for making big payments. This would put a lot of pressure on the organisers who will have to hire professional accountants for the purpose,” he said.
Mr. Ghosh, who met tax officials with a number of organisers on Friday, said that there are many smaller Pujas in the city are likely to shy away from holding community Puajs if they are put under such scrutiny. Tax officials have suggested that the organisers get a PAN (permanent account number) before the 2019 Durga Puja season.
There are about 28,000 community Pujas in the State, with Kolkata accounting for nearly 3,000 of them. More than 200 Pujas in the city have huge budgets, running into crores of rupees.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has urged the representatives of the Puja committees to not to respond to the IT notices. “Are they [the Centre] trying to stop the Durga Puja in West Bengal? Be it Modi or anybody from the BJP, we will not let them lay their hands on any of these Pujas,” Ms. Banerjee said at a public event on Friday.
