I-T Dept Assures Supreme Court: No Coercive Measures for Rs 3,500 Crore Recovery from Congress Before End of Lok Sabha Polls

I-T Dept Assures Supreme Court: According to the Income Tax Department, it will not take any "coercive steps" to recover approximately Rs 3,500 crore from the Indian National Congress before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

“Please record my statement that till the matter is heard next…whenever we will not take any coercive steps…We will not take any coercive steps till the elections are over”, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the I-T Department, told a bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Augustine George Masih.

The INDIA bloc had flagged the I-T action as a bid by the ruling party and establishment to choke off opposition parties.

As the apex court heard the appeals filed by the Congress challenging the I-T Department's demands, it recorded the department's assurance and set the matter for hearing on July 24.

Upon Mehta's request, the bench also clarified in its order that “it is needless to observe that the concession made by the SG with respect to demand is without prejudice to all rights and contentions that it may have against the plaintiff herein” and that “the…demand of approximately Rs 3500 cr is not strictly relatable to the controversy in these appeals and touch upon other demands which arise against the plaintiff.”

In his appearance for the Congress, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi pointed out that the main civil appeal is pending and involves demands related to the 1994-95 assessment year. In his view, the department has already "collected Rs 135 crore by attaching properties."

“we are not a profit-making organisation and only a political party …Our case is gross receipt is not taxable”. Calling the gesture “gracious,” Singhvi said: “I am very rarely rendered speechless. By my learned friend’s intervention, I have been rendered speechless. Kindly have it in July,” Singhvi said.

According to Mehta, the Rs 1,700-crore demand was based on a 2016 judgment.

Congress Saturday said it had received fresh notices from the I-T Department for the assessment years 2014-15 to 2016-17, raising Rs 1,745 crore in demands.

A total of Rs 3,567 crore was due, as well as notices for the assessment years 1994-95 and 2017-18 to 2020-21. The Congress responded by accusing the BJP-led central government of engaging in "tax terrorism" in order to "financially cripple" it ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

The Delhi High Court rejected four petitions by the Congress challenging the Department's initiation of tax reassessment proceedings against it from 2017-18 to 2020-21.

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