An hour after claiming that the Income Tax Department froze its bank accounts, the Congress party has now said that its bank accounts are operational.
Senior Congress leader Ajay Maken took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to claim that the Income Tax Department and the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal had asked Congress to maintain Rs 115 crores in their bank accounts.
“This 115 crore is the lien marked in the Bank Accounts. We can spend an amount over and above that. This means that Rs 115 crores have been frozen. This Rs 115 crore is much more than we have in our Current Accounts,” he tweeted.
#DemocracyFrozen
— Ajay Maken (@ajaymaken) February 16, 2024
On our petition, Income Tax Department and the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) has said that we have to ensure that Rs 115 crores have to be kept in the Banks. This 115 crore is the lien marked in the Bank Accounts.
We can spend an amount over and above…
Earlier today, the Congress party alleged that the Income Tax department has frozen its bank accounts. The party alleged that democracy has ended in India with the freezing of bank accounts of the country’s main Opposition party.
In a press briefing on Friday (16th February), Congress Treasurer Ajay Maken said that the party learnt that the banks are not honouring the cheques issued by the party.
He said that the I-T department has made a demand of Rs 210 crore on flimsy grounds over a case relating to income tax returns of 2018-19.
“It is not only the accounts of the Congress party that have been frozen, but the democracy has been frozen in our country. When the principal Opposition party’s accounts have been frozen just two weeks before the announcement of the national elections, do you think democracy is alive in this country?” Maken said.
He claimed that the money of the Congress party has not been received from the corporates, bonds nor “big money which comes from big houses”.
Maken added that the money frozen has come through crowdfunding by Congress workers. “We collected around Rs 25 crores from the crowdfunding by our workers. 95% of this, less than Rs 100, has been collected legally through UPI. This money has been collected through online funding, no cash has been taken. The Youth Congress has collected its money through membership drive,” he claimed.
Maken added, “On the other hand, more than Rs 6,500 crores which were collected through unconstitutional corporate bonds which have been pronounced unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, that account of the BJP still exists.”
This controversy comes a day after the Supreme Court struck down the electoral bonds scheme as unconstitutional and ordered the SBI to stop accepting the bonds and return such money received in the past 15 days which has not been encashed yet to the purchaser.
