Statutory exemption for trust income requires proof of exclusion under the Income-tax Act before agricultural income-tax relief applies.

Section 4(b) of the Tamil Nadu Agricultural Income-tax Act, 1955 allows exemption only where agricultural income from property held under trust for charitable or religious purposes corresponds to income not included in total income under the Income-tax Act, 1961. The assessee failed to produce material showing that, for the relevant assessment year, its trust income had been recognised as charitable or religious under the Central Act or excluded from total income. As the statutory condition was not affirmatively proved, the exemption was unavailable and the agricultural income-tax levy was sustained.

---

---

Issues: Whether the assessee was entitled to exemption from agricultural income-tax under section 4(b) of the Tamil Nadu Agricultural Income-tax Act, 1955, for the assessment year 1983-84 without showing that its income from trust property was not included in total income under the Income-tax Act, 1961.

Analysis: Section 4(b) grants exemption only to agricultural income derived from property held under trust for charitable or religious purposes to the same extent to which the corresponding income under the Income-tax Act, 1961 is not included in total income. The assessee did not produce any order or material showing that, for the relevant assessment year, it had been recognised as a charitable or religious trust under the Central Act or that its income had been excluded from total income under that Act. In the absence of proof of satisfaction of the statutory condition, the exemption could not be granted.

Conclusion: The assessee was not entitled to exemption under section 4(b), and the levy of agricultural income-tax for the relevant assessment year was sustained.

Ratio Decidendi: A statutory exemption linked to exclusion of income under the Income-tax Act must be affirmatively proved by the assessee before it can be claimed under the Tamil Nadu Agricultural Income-tax Act.

---