Income Tax: Yet another setback for Congress

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Thursday dismissed four more petitions filed by the Congress against the Income Tax re-assessment proceedings initiated against it. The Congress had filed the pleas against the IT department's action of initiating re-assessment of its figures from 2017-18 to 2020-21. Recently the bench had dismissed Congress's plea against re-assessment of 2014 to 2017.

The Division Bench of Justice Yashwant Verma and Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav dismissed four pleas on similar terms as its earlier judgment whereby identical pleas of the same political party were dismissed regarding the reassessment proceedings for three years.

Recently, the Delhi High Court upheld the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) order refusing to stay on the Income Tax notice for recovery of more than Rs 105 crore as outstanding tax against INC. The Court while upholding the ITAT order, granted liberty to Petitioner congress party to move Appellate Tribunal afresh with the grievance.

The Congress has recently approached the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) against the recovery and has filed a complaint and sought a stay against Income Tax Department proceedings of recovery and freezing of their Bank accounts.

In the complaint, Congress said the Income Tax Department has enforced its law by encashing some of the balances lying with the banks without waiting for the outcome of the hearing scheduled before the bench. Congress appealed that the department should not proceed further till the disposal of the stay application.