Know what the Income Tax Tribunal stated about Congress’s rejection of its request to halt action on bank accounts.

Income Tax on Congress Account: Cash transactions and late income tax returns have resulted in a penalty of Rs 210 crore being levied against the Congress account. The petition asking for this to be prohibited has been turned down.

Congress Appeal To Income Tax Tribunal: The Congress Party filed a plea with the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) requesting a stay on the bank account recovery and freezing procedures, which was denied by the ITAT.
In actuality, four bank accounts connected to Youth Congress and Congress had been frozen by the Income Tax Department. The Income Tax Department is attempting to retrieve Rs 210 crore. This implies that Congress will be required to reimburse the Income Tax Department for this sum as a penalty. The party had appealed to the authorities about this.

What was Congress requesting?

In an appearance on behalf of the Congress, senior lawyer Vivek Tankha asked that the ruling be kept postponed for ten days so that the party may file an appeal with the High Court. The bench, however, dismissed it, stating that no such provision was presented to them.
Tankha countered that the political party is financially constrained since it requires money for elections, in contrast to IT’s assertion. According to him, the party might have to pay for half of each candidate’s expenditures even if it only runs for 350 seats in the next elections, which might be an expensive endeavor. The Public Representation Act of 1951 states that a candidate for the Lok Sabha may spend up to Rs 95 lakh.

What’s wrong?

Allow us to clarify that the 2018–2019 income tax return is at the center of this whole situation. The Income Tax Department is requesting that Congress pay a penalty of Rs 210 crore. This action is being taken for two reasons. This is a result of the return being filed 40–45 days after the department-scheduled deadline of December 31, 2019.
2018–19 was an election year aside from this. The Congress had expended 199 crores. Congress MPs and MLAs deposited Rs 14 lakh 40 thousand of the total as part of their salaries. Cash was used to deposit this money. Congress now faces a penalty of Rs 210 crore from the Income Tax Department.