On July 24, the case will be heard again......
Digital desk: The Income Tax Department informed the Supreme Court on Monday that it would not pressure to obtain a tax demand of more than Rs 3,500 crore from Congress until after the Lok Sabha elections are over.
The bench including Justice B.V. Nagarathna and Augustine George Masih were considering an appeal filed in 2018 by the opposition party against a Delhi High Court ruling from 2016. The party had filed an interim application to put off the Income Tax Department's recent tax demand notices as part of the proceedings.
One day after the High Court denied the Congress's petitions contesting the tax reassessment processes for the fiscal years 2017–18 through 2020–21, the Income Tax Department sent the party with a notice worth Rs 1,823 crore on Friday.
Along with rejecting Congress's petitions, the High Court stated that the government agency "appears to have collated substantial and concrete evidence warranting further scrutiny and examination" under the Income Tax Act. The petitions challenged the tax reassessment proceedings for the fiscal years 2014–15, 2015–16, and 2016–17.
According to The Indian Express, the party received fresh notices from the Income Tax agency on Saturday for the assessment years 2014–15 to 2016–17, which included claims of Rs. 1,745 crore. The most recent notification brought the total sum to Rs. 3,567 crores when paired with the previous demands for the assessment years 1994–1995 and 2017–18 to 2020–21.
Senior Attorney Abhishek Singhvi informed the Supreme Court on Monday, defending the Congress, that the Income Tax department had already received Rs. 135 crore from the party, according to Bar and Bench.
Defending the Income Tax department, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said to the Supreme Court that as elections are ongoing and the case is pending, no coercive measures would be employed against the Congress, according to Bar and Bench.
“The issues which arise in these appeals are yet to be adjudicated upon but having regard to the situation now, the [Income Tax] department does not wish to precipitate the matter and [says] that no coercive steps will be taken about Rs 3,500 crores approximately,” the Supreme Court said.
On July 24, the case will be heard again. Before the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress claimed on March 21 that the Income Tax authorities had frozen all of its bank accounts.
Congress MP and lawyer Vivek Tankha responded to Monday's session by thanking the court for guaranteeing fairness amongst the political parties in advance of the elections. In a social media post, he stated that it "was not possible if Congress had not fought tax terrorism before our courts."
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