Amid account ‘freeze and de-freeze’ of Congress, here is an account of its tax liability
Congress party treasurer, Ajay Maken claimed that the party’s bank accounts, including those of Youth Congress, were “frozen” and made inoperative by the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT). However, just an hour later, the party claimed that it was “defrozen” by the I-T department.
Sources in the I-T department termed it a “routine recovery measure“, the tax authorities said that recovery made by withdrawing money from accounts is a “routine recovery measure” and the Congress accounts were ‘neither blocked nor stopped’. Also, the party has many more accounts for its activities,” they said.
Congress owes an outstanding balance of about Rs.135 crore for the financial year 2018-19 and this includes a demand of Rs.103 crore on account of assessment and interest of Rs.32 crore (approximately).
As per the I-T sources privy to information on Congress tax liability, recovery to the tune of Rs.115 crore has been affected by withdrawing money from various bank accounts of INC.
“INC was requested to pay 20 percent of the total demand (i.e. Rs.21 crore approx.) as per extant procedure. An amount of Rs 78 lakh only was paid. Since INC failed to pay 20 percent of the outstanding demand, the letter was issued asking it to pay the balance demand of Rs.104 crore. The appeal filed by INC before CIT (A) was later dismissed,” the I-T department further said in a statement.
Congress called it a BJP government’s ploy to disrupt the party’s election preparations by blocking its funds but the “revelation” by tax authorities on Congress tax liability has cleared the air about the entire “account freeze” row.
[With Inputs from IANS]
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