Nepal earthquake: Income Tax Department nod in 2 days for charity firms for relief work

NEW DELHI: The Income Tax Department will provide the mandatory permission within two days to charitable organisations seeking to undertake relief and rehabilitation activities in earthquake-hit Nepal.

"Charitable organisations under IT Act can render help to earthquake victims in Nepal. Applications to CBDT will be processed in two days," Revenue Secretary Shaktikanta Das said in a tweet.

Charitable orgnaisations need I-T Department's permission to spend money outside India for promoting international welfare.

It will be the endeavor of the Department to process these applications within two working days of receiving the completed applications, an official statement of Finance Ministry said.

The details of documents required to be submitted along with such applications have been uploaded on the website of Income Tax Department, it added.

India was the first to respond to the Nepal crisis and it immediately sent relief material.

The death toll in the devastating earthquake that rocked Nepal has climbed to over 4,350 today with more than 8,000 injured.

Crisis loomed over quake-hit Nepal with an acute shortage of food, water, electricity and medicines as fear of another quake kept tens of thousands of people out in the open.

Besides, India today pressed six more teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel into its relief and rescue operations in Nepal as the Himalayan country struggles to cope in the grim aftermath of the deadly earthquake which has left thousands dead and affected millions.

With this total number of NDRF team has gone up to 16.