New Delhi. The country’s main opposition party Congress has suffered a setback in the tax case of Rs 199 crore. The Income Tax Tribunal has rejected the appeal of the Congress. The Income Tax Tribunal has said that the Congress party will have to pay taxes on donations received during the financial year 2017-18. The Congress party received Rs 199 crore during the year 2017-18, on which a notice was issued by the Income Tax Department to the party to deposit tax. The Congress says that this amount has been donated to it, so it should be tax free.
At the same time, the tribunal says that the Congress will not get any relief in the income tax exemption of Rs 199 crore pending from FY 2017-18 and 2018-19. The Congress party has rejected a tax exemption claim under Section 13A due to delayed filing of income tax returns and violation of the cash donation limit. The Congress filed an income tax return on February 2019. Which was submitted quite late from the due date of 31 December 2018. While filing this return, its income was shown zero by the Congress party and claimed a tax exemption for the amount of 199 crores.
When the tax officer investigated in September 2019, it was found that Rs 14.49 lakh cash was received by the party. Under the law, many donations were higher than a cash donation limit of Rs 2000, because according to the rule more than 2000 donations should be taken either by check or other banking medium. Therefore, tax was also levied on this entire amount. In 2021, the Income Tax Department refused to give exemption to the Congress. After this, in 2023, the Income Tax Commissioner also did not give relief to the Congress. The Congress then appealed to the Income Tax Tribunal.
