ITAT reserves orders in Cong's plea seeking stay of IT dept's action on bank account

ITAT reserves Congress' plea for order

The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) on February 22 reserved Indian National Congress' plea seeking a stay of the Income Tax (IT) department's lien on their bank accounts.

The appellate tribunal heard senior advocate Vivek Tankha for Congress and lawyer Zoheb Hossain for the IT Department for two sessions before reserving the plea for judgment.

During the hearing, Tankha argued that contrary to what the IT claimed, the political party is constrained for funds especially since it needs resources to fund its campaign for the upcoming elections. According to Tankha, even if the party contests only 350 seats in the upcoming elections, it may have to foot 50 percent of the expenditure of each candidate, which may prove to be an expensive affair.

According to the Representation of Peoples Act, 1951, a candidate can spend up to Rs 95 lakh for Lok Sabha elections.

Tankha further argued that the IT department's information on the party's financial resources is outdated as they have had to face five assembly elections since the return was filed in 2023. Tankha also stated that the party had other planned activities for which they require funds.

According to Tankha, the IT department was taking a rather adversarial approach in Congress' case, especially during elections. He argued that a stay of such order is granted by ITAT in a mechanical manner subject to a deposit of 20 percent of the demand.

Responding to Tankha, Hossain argued that the IT department was treating Congress like it treats every other assessee. He argued that stays cannot be granted to Congress in a mechanical manner especially considering their conduct in the case. Hossain contended that the IT department had been pursuing Congress with this demand for over three years now, however the party evaded all their attempts.

On February 21, IT argued that the political party has a corpus of Rs 657 crore, fixed assets of Rs 340 and crore in addition to cash and cash equivalent of Rs 380 crore. It was further argued that this IT demand would not affect Congress' activities in the upcoming elections and therefore the demand need not be stayed.

On February 16, Congress' treasurer and senior leader Ajay Maken alleged that the four bank accounts of the party and the Youth Congress have been frozen by the Income Tax Department, and a demand of Rs 210 crore has been raised in connection with the income tax return case of 2018-19.

Later that day, Tankha said that the ITAT had permitted Congress to operate the bank account noting that there would be only a lien on them.  However, the IT department contended that it had not issued an order to banks to freeze the transactions in Congress' bank account.