After IT raids, Delhi-based think tank CPR says confident it has done nothing wrong
Sep 09, 2022
New Delhi [India], September 9 : After raids by the Income Tax department, the Centre for Policy Research (CPR), a Delhi-based think tank on Friday claimed that it is confident it has done nothing wrong.
CPR said the I-T department visited its office to undertake a survey on September 7-8.
"We have extended full cooperation to the department during the survey and will continue to do so in the future. We hold ourselves to the highest standards of compliance and are confident that we have done nothing wrong. We are committed to working with the authorities to address any questions they might have. We remain committed to our mission to provide rigorous research to policymaking in India," the think tank said in a statement.
The Income Tax department on Wednesday carried out searches at the office of think tank Centre for Policy Research (CPR).
Income Tax sources said that the search was carried out based on "credible information" about tax evasion.
The sources said the search "is not linked to" the income tax searches underway across some states as part of the probe into alleged tax evasion and financial impropriety by unrecognised political parties over donations received without statutory compliances.
Regarding funding, the CPR website says that the think tank is recognised as a not-for-profit society by the government and contributions "are tax exempt". It says CPR receives grants from the Indian Council for Social Science Research (ICSSR) and is a Department of Science and Technology (DST) recognised institution.
CPR says it is a member institution of the Think Tank Initiative (TTI), a programme of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC).
The website states the think tank receives grants from a variety of domestic and international sources, including foundations, corporate philanthropy, governments, and multilateral agencies.
According to CPR, it is a non-profit, non-partisan independent institution, dedicated to conducting research that contributes to high-quality scholarship, better policies and a more robust public discourse. It was established in 1973.
As one of 24 research institutes of the Indian Council of Social Sciences Research network, CPR has all requisite approvals and sanctions, and is authorised by the government as a recipient under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, the think tank said.