New Delhi: The Congress party got an interim relief Friday from the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) which allowed it to access bank accounts, hours after senior leader Ajay Maken claimed that the I-T department served a recovery notice of Rs 210 crore and freezed the accounts.
Rajya Sabha MP Vivek Tankha said that the ITAT ordered Friday that the party’s accounts should be operational and accessible to the party while the “merits” of the recovery notice would be taken up next Wednesday.
Tankha said that the ITAT ordered a ‘lien’ on the Congress’ bank accounts to Rs 115 crore and any amount in the accounts beyond that limit would be accessible for the party.
Earlier in the day, Maken said that the party would struggle to even clear staff salaries and electricity bills. The party treasurer added that the I-T department freezed nine bank accounts of the party and its frontal organisation, the Youth Congress.
“We got to know Wednesday that banks are not honouring cheques we issued and after looking at it, we found that all accounts of the Congress have been locked and frozen,” Maken said at a press conference.
He further said that the I-T department sought the freezing of bank accounts on two grounds: that the party delayed the filing of the income tax return for 2018-19 and for accepting donations amounting to Rs 14.40 lakh in cash which was given by MLAs and MPs.
However, Tankha said in a video statement that the recovery notice was of approximately Rs 135 crore, including interests on the primary penalty of Rs 115 crore.
He said that the party had a revenue of Rs 198 crore and admissible expenditures of Rs 197 crore and, hence, the tax notice of such a large amount is not justifiable for which the ITAT will hear the case Wednesday.
@INCIndia can operate its accounts with a lien of the IT Dept thereon !! Direction by Hon ITAT delhi. Prayer for interim relief will be heard on Wednesday. #inc #bankaccounts #initialrelief pic.twitter.com/BqMNG2jUYE
— Vivek Tankha (@VTankha) February 16, 2024
Phone calls and WhatsApp messages to I-T department spokesperson Surabhi Ahluwali went unanswered.
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‘Freezing of democracy’
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge called the I-T notice and freezing of party’s bank accounts as “deep assault” on Indian democracy as it came just months before the high-stake general elections.
Kharge referred to the Supreme Court’s order on electoral bonds to attack the ruling BJP and said that while the ruling party can have access to the “unconstitutional money”, the largest opposition party can’t use the money collected through crowdfunding.
Power drunk Modi Govt has frozen the accounts of the country’s largest Opposition party – the Indian National Congress – just before the Lok Sabha elections.
This is a deep assault on India’s Democracy !
The UNCONSTITUTIONAL money collected by the BJP would be utilised by them…
— Mallikarjun Kharge (@kharge) February 16, 2024
Meanwhile, Maken also called the move to freeze the accounts as a “disturbing blow to the democratic process”, adding that it was done just weeks before the announcement of general elections to corner the principal opposition party.
“This is not the freezing of Congress’ bank accounts but freezing of democracy in India as bank accounts of the principal opposition party have been frozen just weeks before announcement of the general elections in India,” the former Union minister added.
Calling the grounds of the I-T department which formed the base of the recovery notice of Rs 210 crore as “laughable”, Maken said that Congress has some Rs 25 crore in its bank accounts collected through crowdfunding campaigns in which 90 percent were contributions of Rs 100 or less and collected via UPI or online modes.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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