A day after Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party celebrated its five-year anniversary, Income Tax Department served a Rs. 30-crore tax…
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal (Photo: Facebook)
A day after Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party celebrated its five-year anniversary, Income Tax Department served a Rs. 30-crore tax notice to AAP for alleged discrepancies in donations made to the party and for not disclosing income worth Rs 13 crore, according to media reports.
The tax department has asked the party to explain the discrepancies by 7 December.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal took to Twitter regarding the tax notice on alleged discrepancies, saying that “In history of India, ALL donations to a political party have been declared illegal” and added that “This is height of political vendetta”.
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In the history of India, ALL donations to a political party have been declared illegal. All these were accounted for and shown in books of accounts. This is height of political vendetta
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) November 27, 2017
For the financial years 2014-15 and 2015-16, the notice has put AAP’s taxable income at Rs 68.44 crore. The notice also has the list of names, who made donations of more than Rs. 20,000 and . The IT department has reportedly pulled up the party for not recording full details of 462 donors who donated Rs 6 crore, according to media reports.
Earlier this year, the Union Home Ministry had sought details of all the foreign donations received by the AAP. The Home Ministry officials then stated that the party might have violated provisions of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act.
AAP has regularly alleged harassment by Tax department and its officials. The party has even alleged that Prime Minister Office is pressurising the department to ‘fabricate’ such issues against them.
Last year, the Income Tax department has issued a notice to AAP, citing discrepancies in the donors’ list submitted to tax officials and what had been uploaded on the party website.
The party later removed the donor list, claiming that their donors were being harassed by tax officials.
(With agency inputs)
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