TCA Ramanujam, Retired Chief Commissioner of Income Tax; Advocate, an erudite Sanskrit scholar and a columnist with businessline, passed away on Tuesday. He was 88. He is survived by his son, Arvind Rangarajan, and daughter, TCA Sangeetha.

Ramanujam had been to Tirupati on Saturday and returned to Chennai the next day to deliver the keynote address at the Ananthalwar festival. He complained of uneasiness and was admitted at a private hospital where he died on Tuesday at 11.30 pm, said Sangeetha.

Ramanujam retired in 1992 as Chief Commissioner of Income Tax and served as a member of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal for a year. He resumed practice as an advocate and represented the Income Tax department as a senior standing counsel in 2002.

He had a degree in MA Economics from the Vivekananda College, a law degree from the Madras Law College, and later served in Indian Revenue Service.

He began his journey as a tax columnist in the Indian Express in 1992 and later in businessline in 1995. An erudite tax jurist, he began the journal section in the Income Tax reporter, along with his daughter Sangeetha, an advocate in the Madras High Court, who has co-authored many articles along with her father.

A versatile scholar and economist, his interests varied from cricket to music, dance to literature (English and Tamil) to the Divya Prabandham, Vedas, religion and temples.

He had penned a monograph on privatisation and a book on economic offences. He recently contributed an article to The Hindu’s table talk book on Tirumala. The Hindu often referred to him as a carnatic music connoisseur. A member of the Madras Music Academy, he rarely missed his favourite concerts.

GC Jain, Former Chairman, ITSC, and former Chief Commissioner of Income tax ( CCA)-1, Chennai, said Ramanujam was a great administrator, a noble human being and an outstanding tax scholar and author.

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