The Congress party has reported that it received a notice from the Income Tax Department (I-T) amounting to nearly Rs 1,823 crore, inclusive of penalty and interest, for the assessment years 2017-18 to 2020-2021. This notice, which adds to the party's existing challenges, comes after the High Court dismisses its plea contesting tax notices. The Congress has accused the BJP-led government of conspiring to drain its funds ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
The party has labeled the I-T notice as "tax terrorism", alleging it to be a deliberate attempt to financially cripple the party in the run-up to the elections. "The systematic process to thwart Indian Democracy by the BJP proceeds at an alarming rate. Yesterday, we received fresh notices from the IT department to pay Rs 1823.08 crore. Already, the IT department has forcibly taken away Rs 135 crore from our bank account," the party stated in a press note.
Senior Congress leader and former Union Minister, Jairam Ramesh, expressed, "The notices are being sent to cripple us financially. This is tax terrorism, and this is being used to attack the Congress, This has to stop." He affirmed that the Congress's campaign for the upcoming parliamentary polls will continue and the party will present its guarantees to the people of the country. "We will not be scared of these notices. We will be more aggressive and fight these polls," he added.
As per reports, Congress lawyer and Rajya Sabha MP Vivek Tankha stated that the party will further challenge the notices, terming them 'undemocratic and unreasonable'. During a press conference, Congress treasurer Ajay Maken said, "I-T dept snatched Rs 135 crore from Congress accounts for alleged violation of Rs 14 lakh but closed its eyes on a similar violation of Rs 42 crore by BJP."
It is noteworthy that the tax department has already recovered Rs 135 crore from Congress' Delhi bank accounts towards tax arrears and interests for the assessment year 2018-19. The Congress had lodged a protest against the I-T department for freezing its bank accounts and imposing a penalty of Rs 200 crore in February.
The party had appealed against the notice to the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) but failed to get any reprieve as it was told to pay taxes and outstanding dues. Recently, the party has also spoken about its cash crunch and claimed that it does not have money to fund its election campaign.
The Congress faced another setback on Thursday as the High Court dismissed its petition challenging the initiation of tax reassessment proceedings against it. A bench of Justices Yashwant Varma and Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav cited its earlier decision and refused to interfere with the opening of reassessment proceedings for another period. The bench said the reasoning for the earlier verdict (2014-15 to 2016-17) applied to the latest petition as well.
A petition by the Congress was dismissed last week by the High Court where the party challenged the initiation of reassessment proceedings pertaining to the assessment years 2014-15 to 2016-17. Rejecting the plea, the Delhi HC observed that the I-T department had submitted "substantial and concrete" evidence that warranted further scrutiny and examination.
It is to be noted that the Tax authority had claimed that during its searches on entities, including a few allegedly linked to Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar and a company in Surat, cash transactions involving Congress were also revealed. The I-T department cited it as a violation to enable tax exemptions available to political parties.
