It is what you may call charity with benefit.
Indians, staying in the US, could in the next three months avail tax concession on the money they will spend on social welfare projects at their native places in India.
Under the ‘India Development Foundation for Overseas Indians’, an initiative of Ministry of Overseas Indians, they will get tax exemption if they want to build schools, primary health centres and other infrastructure in their villages and places of origin in India.
The Ministry has already started the process of registering the foundation in the US and it will be in place in the next three months, Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi said.
After the US, the ministry will register the foundation in other countries, including the UK and the Gulf. According to official data, there are about 24 million Indians overseas.
The foundation, a ‘not-for-profit’ trust being set up under the Indian Trust Act, 1882, by the Ministry, will be the nodal agency to implement the projects across the country in cooperation with state governments and selected NGOs.
Designed to help in rural infrastructure development, the minister said his ministry would not only target millionaires or rich NRIs for contribution but all in the Indian diaspora who want to give back to the society.
