Your editorial “Faith without exemption” (June 25) praises the finance ministry for having rediscovered the “secular principle of taxation”. According to an official, if the donation is for charity, it will get deduction because India is a secular country. But no deductions will be allowed for making donations for religious purposes.
The editorial argues that money spent as a gesture of one’s faith need not be tax-exempt as it is money spent by an individual in pursuit of his personal faith. This is a bizarre notion of secularism. On the one hand, it is said that tax exemption on money spent by an individual in pursuit of personal faith is against government’s secular character. On the other hand, the government provides subsidy from public funds to Haj pilgrims. Isn’t going on Haj pilgrimage an individual’s pursuit of personal faith? Doesn’t it clash with the secular character of the government?
M C Joshi, Lucknow
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