Congress violated basic principles of tax, lost exemption :
BJP's Gopal Krishna Agarwal
The BJP on Friday reacted
strongly to Congress allegations that the government is targeting it through
tax notices and freezing of bank accounts.
"The I-T exemption that parties get is
based on certain conditions. Congress has violated the basic condition mandated
by EC for tax exemption," BJP national spokesperson Gopal Krishna Agarwal
told ET.
Agarwal said that Congress got
cash donations above Rs 2,000,
which is against the rule.
"The Congress received Rs
14.5 lakh in cash over Rs 2,000. These violations and late returns cost them
their exemption under Section 13(A) of the I-T Act," he stated.
Once a political party loses tax exemption, all
its income becomes taxable and all expenditure under income from other sources
is disallowed.
Agarwal further said the IT
department issued several notices to Congress, but they didn't respond.
"The notice of
demand for Rs 135 crore tax given to Congress for the assessment year 2018-19
is after the party lost the exemption," he added.
The BJP leader said that Congress filed an
appeal before the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal but didn't pay the mandatory
20% of the total liability required to hear the matter.
"Congress has gone to appeal in ITAT as
well as High Court but all their appeals have been rejected. The matter is in
the Supreme Court now," Agarwal said.
He said that the
Income Tax department's action is based on the incriminating material seized
during search operations which indicated extensive usage of cash by the party.
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