This action follows the dismissal of the party’s plea by the Delhi High Court, which contested reassessment proceedings for four assessment years.
New Delhi: The Congress party faced a significant setback on Friday after the Income Tax Department has reportedly issued demand notice of Rs. 1,700 crore to the grand old party. The fresh demand notice is for assessment years 2017-18 to 2020-21 and includes penalty and interest, ANI news agency reported citing sources. The Congress is already facing a funds crunch after Income Tax authorities imposed a penalty of Rs. 200 crore and froze its funds. This action follows the dismissal of the party’s plea by the Delhi High Court, which contested reassessment proceedings for four assessment years.
Congress lawyer and RS MP Vivek Tankha alleged that the fresh notice of nearly Rs 1,700 crore was served on the party on Thursday without key accompanying documents. “We received the demand notice without assessment orders. The govt appeared keener to serve us with demand rather than issue us reasons for reassessment,” TOI quoted Tankha as saying. He further added, “this is how the main opposition party is being strangled financially, and that too during the Lok Sabha elections”.
For the past few weeks, Congress has claimed that efforts were being made to weaken the party financially by the BJP-led Centre government. The Congress has accused the saffron party of misusing the central agencies such as the Income Tax department for its benefit.
Congress General Secretary K.C. Venugopal, who is a candidate for the Alappuzha Lok Sabha constituency in Kerala, said that the party will reach out to people across the country on the issue of “accounts being frozen”.
“The next two days across the country we are going to meet the people and tell them what the BJP has done to the Congress party ahead of the polls by using authorities to freeze our accounts,” said Venugopal.
“We are being told that even the BJP has not filed the mandatory returns, a charge which the authorities have used against our party and frozen our accounts,” added Venugopal.
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