Ratan Tata sets up new endowment trust, likely to fund charities in future

Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Trusts, has set up another personal endowment trust, The Economic Times reported on Friday. It cited legal experts as saying that the aim behind creating the Ratan Tata Endowment Foundation could be estate planning, with the proceeds from the corpus likely to go to charities.

The trust was incorporated in September and it has Raghvan Ramachandra Shastri and Burzis Shapur Taraporevala as directors. 

Besides this endowment trust, Shastri is also on the boards of 7 other entities, including the Council of Philanthropies for Climate Action and Odisha Cancer Care Foundation. Taraporevala is on 11 boards, including Tril Developers Ltd, Access Livelihoods Foundation and South Asia Cancer Care Foundation.

Trusts and foundations are typically set up for estate planning, not investments. The benefit of constituting an endowment fund is to secure tax efficiencies by registering the corpus and availing the applicable exemptions under the relevant provisions of the Income Tax Act, 1961. Unlike a typical investment fund, the beneficiary of an endowment fund is a non-profit.

“Multiple trusts and foundations are set up to essentially maintain that such endowments retain their ‘private’ character and avoid their administration being governed by the central/state legislations governing a public trust,” Ketan Mukhija, Partner, Link Legal, told ET. 

According to Anuja Kedia, senior partner at law firm Parinam Law Associates, “From an administration point of view, having a separate trust or fund supporting a different cause allows for specific schemes to be prepared for the functioning of each such trust/fund depending on their purpose, providing a much higher level of operational efficacy.” 

Vineeta MG, partner at law firm Samvad Partners, said industrialists and industry leaders are now diverting their wealth into philanthropic efforts and enterprises. The creation of a separate fund allows them to focus on charitable objectives.