Congress Secures Relief from Tax Tribunal After Claimed Freeze of Bank Accounts by IT Department

Congress Secures Relief from Tax Tribunal After Claimed Freeze of Bank Accounts by IT Department

On Friday, Congressman Vivek Tankha announced that, following the party’s filing of an appeal, the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal had lifted the block on the party’s bank accounts. The explanation was given soon after Congress claimed that its primary bank accounts had been stopped by income tax authorities, affecting all political activities. In opposition to the ruling, Vivek Tankha told the tribunal that the Congress could now manage its bank accounts. Before a ruling is made on the topic, the tribunal will hear the case on Wednesday of next week. According to Vivek Tankha, he informed the tribunal that if its accounts were to stay frozen, the Congress would not be permitted to take part in the “festival of elections.”

Vivek Tankha’s remarks follow Congress treasurer Ajay Maken’s claim that the IT department had stopped the party’s primary bank accounts on “flimsy grounds,” which had an impact on all political activities of the party just two weeks before the announcement of general elections. Ajay Maken stated during a news conference that the accounts, including the Indian Youth Congress, were stopped due to an income tax demand of ₹210 crore for the 2018–19 fiscal year, which was an election year. According to Ajay Maken, the reason for this move is that the party filed its income tax return for the relevant year a few days late. He clarified that the orders to freeze the accounts had come from the I-T officials on Wednesday. Four primary bank accounts were frozen, according to Ajay Maken. Subsequently, nine were reported by the news agency.

“The power-drunk Modi government has frozen the accounts of the country’s largest opposition party, the Indian National Congress, just before the Lok Sabha elections,” Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said in response to the development in a post on X. “This is a deep assault on India’s democracy,” he stated. The BJP will use the illegal funds it raised for elections, while the Congress will keep its crowdsourcing funds under wraps, according to the party president. “I have stated that there won’t be any elections in the future because of this. The president of the Congress said, “We urge the judiciary to preserve India’s democracy and the nation’s multi-party system. Shashi Tharoor, a Congress MP, called it “shocking and utterly shameful.” Ajay Maken claims that Congress was not even allowed to spend the money that it had raised through its crowdsourcing initiative. He claimed that the nation’s democracy was “in danger.” “For the first time in the country’s history, accounts of the principal opposition party have been frozen by the tax authorities on flimsy grounds, barely two weeks before the announcement of general elections,” Ajay Maken stated to reporters. The blocking of Congressmen’s bank accounts, according to Sachin Pilot, “is a clear misuse of power.”

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“The Congress party has consistently honored its guiding ideals and upheld openness in the money raised through various avenues and political campaigns. Such a flagrant act of political retribution against another opposition party has never been unleashed in the annals of political discourse. 90% of the funds earned through electoral bonds—which the Hon. Supreme Court ruled yesterday to be unconstitutional—have been kept by the BJP. All of these acts appear to have been planned, and their timing is dubious. Sachin Pilot stated on X (formerly Twitter) that “the BJP has left no stone unturned to stifle opposition voices and has set a dangerous precedent for targeting opponents and undermining democratic processes.” The Supreme Court declared the Center’s anonymous political finance program, known as electoral bonds, to be “unconstitutional” on Thursday and ruled that the donors, amounts, and recipients of the bonds must be disclosed by March 13.