New Delhi, Jun 1 (IANS): The Centre on Wednesday notified the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) for exemption under the section 10(46) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 from 2021-22 till 2025-26.

The section 10(46) of the IT Act is applicable to any notified body/authority/board/ trust/commission (or a class thereof), which has been established or constituted by or under a Central, state or provincial Act, or has been constituted by the Centre or a state government with the object of regulating or administering any activity for the benefit of the general public, is not engaged in any commercial activity, and is notified by the Central government in the Official Gazette.

This section exempts from tax any specified income arising out of such bodies. The National Biodiversity Authority is established under the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 (18 of 2003).

The amount received in the form of grant-in-aid from the Centre, benefit sharing fee and royalty received, amount received in the form of application fees, and interest earned on monies accumulated from above three would be exempted from tax under the section 10(46) of the IT Act, the notification said.

However, it is subject to the conditions that the National Biodiversity Authority, Chennai shall not engage in any commercial activity, its activities and the nature of the specified income shall remain unchanged throughout the financial years, and it shall file return of income in accordance with the provision of the relevant clauses.

The notification also said that the exemption would be deemed to have been applied for the financial year 2021-2022 and shall be applicable with respect to the financial years 2022-2023, 2023-2024, 2024-2025 and 2025-2026.