Won’t recover Rs 3,500 crore dues from Congress until after elections, IT department tells SC

The Income Tax Department told the Supreme Court on Monday that it will not take any coercive action to recover a tax demand of over Rs 3,500 crore from the Congress until after the Lok Sabha elections conclude, Live Law reported.

The bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Augustine George Masih was hearing the Opposition party’s 2018 appeal against a 2016 judgement of the Delhi High Court. As part of the proceedings, the party had moved an interim application seeking to stay the Income Tax Department’s recent tax demand notices.

On Friday, the Income Tax Department served a notice of Rs 1,823 crore to the Congress a day after the High Court rejected the party’s petitions challenging the tax reassessment proceedings for the financial years 2017-’18 to 2020-’21.

The High Court had also rejected petitions by the Congress challenging tax reassessment proceedings for the financial years 2014-’15, 2015-’16 and 2016-’17, noting that the government agency “appears to have collated substantial and concrete evidence warranting further scrutiny and examination” under the Income Tax Act.

On Saturday, the party received fresh notices from the Income Tax department for the assessment years 2014-’15 to 2016-17 raising demands of Rs 1,745 crore, The Indian Express reported. The latest notice combined with the earlier demands for assessment years 1994-’95 and 2017-’18 to 2020-’21 took...

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