Both the revenue collection arms of Finance Ministry's Income Tax and Service Tax departments have recently issued notices to these trusts which are now being contested by Ramdev.
Officials of Central Economic Intelligence Bureau (CEIB) and Directorate General of Central Excise Intelligence (DGCEI) are assessing the income and service tax liability of these trusts run by Ramdev.
"An inquiry has been initiated to ascertain the Service Tax liability on Ramdev's trusts. Prima facie, there were some commercial activities like sale of coupons to participate in yoga camps and sales of products (claimed to be of medicinal use) by Patanjali Yoga Peeth run by him. The department is assessing them," a source said.
Officials said that information related to the sponsors and the source of money used in conducting various programmes across the country by Ramdev's trusts were being collected.
When contacted, Ramdev's spokesperson S K Tijarawala claimed the trusts are exempted from tax net as they are doing charitable activities and not running a commercial enterprise.
"We will cooperate with all the agencies in their probe. We do not have anything to hide. Yoga camps are barred from paying service tax as they are meant for providing medical relief to the people," he contended.
The I-T department, in May, has also slapped a notice of Rs 58 crore on the sale of the ayurvedic medicines by these trusts.
The Service Tax department has similarly raised a demand of about Rs 5 crore on the 'yog shivirs' run by Ramdev's trusts. (More)
