Congress suffers setback after IT department issues two more tax notifications

As the party said that it got two further letters from the Income Tax (I-T) Department on “Friday night,” problems for the Congress grew on Saturday. The party received the new notifications one day after the I-T department presented it with a tax notice for Rs 1,823.08 crore, which was for arrears in five assessment years (1994–1995, 2017–2018, and 2020–21).

AICC General Secretary Jairam Ramesh told the journalists at the party headquarters that the party was not surprised by the new notifications. Two additional notifications arrived on Friday evening. I’m not sure how many more there will be after today. From the period of Sitaram Kesari (1993–1994), we received tax notifications. It is no longer shocking. If we don’t get any alerts, I feel shocked,” Ramesh said.

It’s unclear, however, whether the party received a demand on Friday night for the three evaluation years (2014–15 to 2016–17). Congressmen protested the I-T move around the country, and the party was expecting that their plea will be heard by the Supreme Court on Monday.

A number of prominent figures, like as Congressman Mallikarjun Kharge and former president Rahul Gandhi, referred to the move as “tax terrorism of the Modi government” on Friday.

Congress’s appeals against the tax reassessment process were denied by the Delhi High Court for a four-year term ending in 2021.

It rejected the request in accordance with its previous ruling that it would not impede the reassessment’s opening for a further year. The Congress had contested the start of reassessment procedures for assessment years 2014–15 to 2016–17 in the previous petition, which was denied last week. However, while searches were out before to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the tax authorities discovered “unaccounted transactions” of Rs 523.87 crore.

Congressman Vivek Tankha, who represented the party before the High Court, responded to the I-T claims by telling this newspaper that the tax agency is deceiving people since there are simply entries in the Excel sheets and no such cash transactions.

He referenced the Supreme Court’s denial of a request to look into the Birla-Sahara groups’ purported payments to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, stating that it was only an Excel sheet entry.