The Income Tax Department on Tuesday retrieved Rs 65 crore from the Indian National Congress’s account, part of the total outstanding tax dues amounting to Rs 115 crore.
The Congress party has taken action today by approaching the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) regarding this recovery and has lodged a formal complaint. In the complaint, the Congress party alleged that the Income Tax Department enforced its lien by seizing funds from the party’s bank accounts without awaiting the outcome of the scheduled hearing before the bench.
The Congress party has requested that the department halt any further actions until the stay application is resolved. The ITAT has issued a directive to maintain the current status until the case is heard. The case has been scheduled for 2:30 pm today.
Earlier this month, the Congress party had claimed that the Income Tax department had frozen its bank accounts over a tax demand. Addressing a press conference, party leader Ajay Maken said that banks are not honouring cheques issued by the party. He said that a demand of ₹210 crore has been made by the I-T department on flimsy grounds over a case relating to income tax returns of 2018-19.
However, a few hours later, the party said that the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal granted relief and ordered to unfreeze the party’s bank accounts. But the party added that it has been asked to keep ₹115 crore in their bank accounts. This means, effectively ₹115 crore were still frozen, and the party could spend the rest of the amount from their accounts. Ajay Maken claimed that this amount is much more than what they have in current accounts.
Congress Rajya Sabha MP and advocate Vivek Tankha, who appeared for the party before the ITAT, said that the ITAT said there is no restriction on bank accounts but only a lien of ₹115 crore.
However, the Income Tax department has said that it never froze the bank accounts of the Congress party, and only recovered some of the due amount from the party’s bank accounts. The I-T dept said that as the party is not paying an outstanding tax amount of ₹135, it was decided to recover around ₹116 crore from the party’s bank accounts. The dept added that the party has more funds in its other accounts which it can freely use.