Church to oppose transparency bill

Kochi: The Latin Catholic Church will oppose the provisions in the Kerala Church (Properties and Institutions) Bill 2019 such as the suggestion to form special tribunals. The general assembly of the Kerala Region Latin Catholic Council which concluded on Sunday stated the proposal for special tribunal is not acceptable. “The church has internal functional mechanisms as per the laws prevailing in the country and provisions of the canon law to resolve matters of dispute. External interference for adjudicating internal affairs of the church is not acceptable”,  a resolution adopted at the conclusion of the two-day event said.

The resolution also said that the Latin Church will conduct a deep and engrossing study of the provisions of the bill and form a final opinion in the matter. The resolution also stated that measure mentioned in the bill such as auditing and inspection of income tax authorities are already practiced in the church.

Joseph Velivil and Jacob Santhosh executive committee members of Joint Christian Council however raised the need for an appellate authority to examine the decision of the tribunal. In a detailed note on the provisions of the bill the two have pointed out that as per the bill dispute in any denominations of church will be heard and decided by the Tribunal appointed as per Clause 8 and 9. The bill however does not say anything about appellate authority if any complaint not settled or a member aggrieved on the decision of the tribunal. This needed to be looked into and do the needful.   

According to them there are three different types of entities governed by various church denominations and dioceses authorities ranging from distilleries, monasteries, convents, educational institutions, hospitals, hotels, trading organisations, super markets, dairy farms, shopping complexes, convention centers, hotels. But under the bill as per the definition clause 2(b) 'Church' do not cover all these entities and says only 'all denominations'. Further under clause 2(f) the definition of denomination is also not clearly mention the various profit oriented entities governed by priests but only religious spiritual and temporal matters.

The other point raised by them says presently church properties are governed and controlled by Bishops or curia under a single Permanent Account Number. As per the draft bill each parishes will be treated as separate denominations. It should be clarified whether each denomination needs to keep the accounts and file the return under separate PAN No.

On the administration of convents and monasteries and funding of such institutions there is no clarity in the present administrative system. The salary and earnings by nuns and priests of such convents are taken by the head of the institutions. TDS from the salary earned by the nuns are also not deducted and not filing the Income Tax returns as their own. There should be a separate provision for this group of evangelical denomination for not to repeat "Bishop Franco" like episodes.