The Income Tax department’s action, freezing the Congress’ main bank accounts, was part of its “routine procedure” against defaulters, carried out in connection to claims for the tax assessment year 2018-19, according to sources close to the government.
Alleging partisan politics, the Opposition party claimed that its accounts had been frozen on “flimsy grounds”. The freezing of its accounts “has affected all political activity” of the party barely weeks before general elections are announced, Congress Ajay Maken said. However, sources close to the government said that the freezing of accounts was only up to ₹115 crore, adding that the Congress was free to undertake other banking activities.
According to the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal order issued on Friday, Revenue department representatives said they “do not claim to have issued any order or direction to the concerned bank(s) for freezing the transactions in the bank account(s), but only for a lien on the amount lying in the bank account(s) upto the outstanding tax demand”.
