The Delhi High Court on Friday noted that the Income Tax Department appears to have collated “substantial and concrete evidence” regarding unaccounted transactions worth Rs 520 crore involving the Congress party with respect to Lok Sabha Elections 2019 and Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections in 2018 and 2013. The I-T department has named Congress leaders Kamal Nath and Digvijay Singh as related to “incriminating evidence” with it, and the court order has listed it.
News18 has a copy of the 45-page order of the High Court dismissing the writ petitions of the Congress that wanted the I-T department to not re-open the assessments of the years 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17 filed by the party. The HC has said Congress chose to approach it only a few days before the time of completion of assessment would expire (March 31) and at the proverbial fag end of proceedings. The HC is yet to hear Congress pleas against re-assessment of four more years. The I-T Department wants to re-open assessments of the Congress from 2014 until 2021 after it found “incriminating evidence” in searches showing unaccounted transactions of the party. The party could face a huge demand notice from the I-T department because of these re-assessments.
The High Court order has specifically recorded the IT Department’s material of “evidences of transfer of Rs 20 crore from the official residence of Kamal Nath to Head Office of AICC” and “payment of Rs 90 lakh made to Digvijay Singh”. There is another entry of “documents that showed payment of Rs 17 crore to AICC”, and various other entries in a dairy, showing amounts paid at “Akbar Road”. The order mentions that the cumulative impact of the material, which has been gathered in the course of the search by I-T, is Rs 520 crore between 2014 and 2021. “We take into consideration the indubitable fact that the cumulative figure attributed to income which has allegedly escaped assessment would stand at approximately Rs 520 crore,” the HC said.
In the order, the HC has recorded that the I-T department has found unaccounted transactions with respect to the Lok Sabha Elections 2019, MP Assembly Elections 2018 and Assembly Elections 2013 and unaccounted transfers to the Congress during Assessment Years 2017-18 to 2020-21. The I-T Department said that this includes details of disbursements made to candidates vying in upcoming elections together with signed receipts, payments allegedly made to MPs/MLAs and candidates and payments and contributions made by government departments and corporations, liquor manufacturers, industry entities and individuals to the Congress party. The I-T has told HC that it had found these evidences during searches conducted upon four individuals in April 2019.
The I-T Department has already recovered Rs 135 crore from the bank accounts of the Congress party for violations of provisions to claim tax exemption in assessment year 2018-19. It has also served a demand of Rs 53 Crore on the Congress for similar violations related to assessment year 1994-1995. The I-T department is now taking a re-look at the tax assessments filed by Congress for seven years between 2014 and 2021 and would finalise the same by March 31, 2024. Demand notices for the same could mean much bigger trouble for the Congress party.
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