THE JHARKHAND STORY DESK
New Delhi, April 1: In light of the Lok Sabha elections, the Income Tax department informed the Supreme Court on Monday that it would not be pursuing any coercive measures against Congress on the tax demand notices amounting to roughly Rs 3,500 crores.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, speaking on behalf of the I-T department, stated before a bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Augustine George Masih that no hasty decisions will be made until the matter is finally adjudicated.
The bench scheduled the hearing for the Congress’ petition challenging the tax demand notices for July.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta began by stating, “I want to make a statement in this matter. The Congress is a political party and since elections are going on, we are not going to take any coercive action against the party.”
He stated that all rights and disputes should be left open and that the department is not making any comments on the issue’s merits.
Approving the gesture, senior counsel Abhishek Singhvi, speaking on behalf of the Congress, called it “gracious” and stated that all demand notices for various years totalling about Rs 3,500 crore had been given in March and earlier.
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Congress received two tax notices of Rs 1823 crore and Rs 1745 crore
On Sunday, the Congress announced that it had been issued new notices by the Income Tax department, indicating a tax liability of Rs 1,745 crore for the assessment years spanning from 2014-15 to 2016-17. This recent notice brings the total tax demand from the party to Rs 3,567 crore, as per their statement.
On Friday, the party reported that it had received notices from the Income Tax department, requesting payment of approximately Rs 1,823 crore. Additionally, the tax authorities have already deducted Rs 135 crore from the party’s accounts to settle a tax demand from previous years.
Delhi HC affirmed ITAT decision, rejected Congress’ pleas on income tax notice
On March 28, the Division Bench of Justices Yashwant Verma and Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav dismissed four pleas from the Congress in a manner consistent with its previous ruling, which dismissed similar pleas from the Congress party with regard to the three-year reassessment proceedings.
The Delhi High Court recently affirmed the decision of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT), which declined to grant a stay on the Income Tax notice demanding over Rs 105 crore in outstanding taxes from the Congress party.
While endorsing the ITAT’s ruling, the Court allowed the Congress party to approach the appellate tribunal again to address their concerns.
