The High Court today said Nobel Laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus will have to pay Tk 12 crore as tax on the money he gifted to his three charitable trusts.
The bench of Justice Muhammad Khurshid Alam Sarkar and Justice Sardar Md Rashed Jahangir delivered the verdict after dismissing three separate applications filed by Yunus challenging the tax liability imposed on the money gifted by him to the trusts.
Details of the verdict could not be known as its full text was not released yet.
According to the case documents, Yunus donated Tk 76.73 crore to three trusts -- "Professor Muhammad Yunus Trust", "Yunus Family Trust" and "Yunus Centre" -- in the tax years 2011-2012 to 2013-2014.
The commissioner of taxes imposed a "gift tax" worth Tk 15.4 crore on the donated money.
Prof Yunus filed appeals with the Tax Appellate Tribunal challenging the imposition of taxes on the donated money. However, the Tax Appellate Tribunal upheld the decision of the Deputy Commissioner of Taxes (DCT). Before filling the appeals, he deposited over Tk 3 crore to the tax office.
After hearing the applications, the HC on April 2, 2015 stayed the operation of the government notifications issued for realising the demanded tax.
Recently the attorney general's office took an initiative for holding hearing on the applications.
Accordingly, the HC held hearing on the matters today.
