The Guruvayoor Devaswom has prima facie appeared to have evaded tax, according to the Income Tax department.
After its inspections at the Devaswom office on March 4, the department came up with a release saying that the Devaswom had “perennially remained non-responsive to the statutory notices issued by the department and violated the various legal provisions of the Income Tax Act, 1961, without any reasonable cause.”
The Devaswom has not meticulously followed any extant accounting principles / methods. It was evident from the fact that no statutory audit was carried out after financial year 2018-19, and no consolidated annual receipt / expenditure statements were prepared. The Devaswom could not provide documents / information / details as required during the survey.
Financials were seen to be maintained by creating multiple haphazard departments without ensuring accountability, which made the consolidation and verification of accounts near impossible, said the statement.
