Armed with cash donation info, IT to reassess Congress liability for 7 years | India News – MASHAHER

NEW DELHI: Income tax authorities are poring over data collected during raids in Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat, allegedly pointing to large cash payments to Congress, as they seek to complete the reassessment proceedings for financial years 2013-14 to 2019-20 by March 31.
The move — based on information collected during raids on Megha Engineering, entities linked to D K Shivakumar and some individuals who were allegedly linked to a former Madhya Pradesh CM — has been challenged by Congress in Delhi HC, which heard the matter on Tuesday but reserved its order for three of the seven years.
“We have told the court that we are in advanced stages of completing the assessment and we are awaiting the order, which is expected any day,” a source said. Some of the searches had allegedly thrown up data suggesting cash payments in excess of Rs 100 crore.While tax authorities refused to give any assessment of the scale of demand that may be raised, they said the department was looking into the accounts of state units and other wings as they were all under the Indian National Congress umbrella.
The party risks losing tax exemption available to political parties for seven years in case the reassessment concludes it received individual contributions exceeding Rs 20,000, the threshold set under the law, violation of which attracts punishment.
On its part, sources said Congress has maintained that ‘panchnama’ and other details were not shared with it. Tax authorities, however, said more than a dozen notices were issued in the cases which started a few years ago.

These are in addition to another one dating back to the financial year 1993-94, where a demand of Rs 11-12 crore has now risen to Rs 53 crore, including interest. The case was flagged by senior Congress leaders on Thursday, claiming that the tax department was seeking to raise bogus demands.
Sources in govt, however, countered it and said Delhi High Court had dismissed Congress’ appeal, which has been pending before SC for seven-eight years and the next hearing is scheduled on April 1. The case has been bunched with at least two others related to withdrawal of tax exemptions for Janata Party and BSP.
They said the demand on Congress had not been raised, but a notice was issued earlier this month.
The investigations into the party’s tax affairs have also shown that there were multiple permanent account numbers (PANs), sources claimed.