Reprieve for Congress; no coercive action against Congress till July 24: I-T dept

New Delhi: Solicitor General Tushar Mehta promised the Supreme Court on Monday that the income tax department will not use coercion to recover about Rs 3,500 crore from the Indian National Congress until after the Lok Sabha elections of 2024. This is to avoid "any problem to any political party."

The next scheduled hearing on this matter is July 24, 2024.

With only a few weeks remaining before the first round of the Lok Sabha elections in 2024 kicked off, the Income Tax department sent the Congress party new notices for the years 1994–1995 and 2017–2018 to 2020–21, asking that they pay Rs 1,823 crore, Indian Express reported.

Additionally, the party was sent notices by the IT department on Saturday about the assessment years 2014–15 through 2016–17, which included claims totalling Rs. 1,745 crores.

The series of notifications comes after the I-T department conducted searches ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, claiming to have identified Rs 523.87 crore worth of "unaccounted transactions."

The party responded to the notifications by accusing the BJP-led Central government of engaging in "tax terrorism" in an attempt to "financially cripple" it ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.