The Income-Tax Department has issued a notice to recover over ₹30 crore from the Aam Aadmi Party after finding that it had failed to fully disclose the donations it had received.
AAP national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday called it “political vendetta.”
Sources said the notice was sent last week.
An I-T Department spokesperson confirmed on Monday that an order had been sent to the AAP for ₹30.7 crore. A department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the party was being investigated on the basis of the donations it had received, a portion of which was not reported.
‘Political vendetta’
“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 (sic),” Mr. Kejriwal tweeted.
Refusing to comment on the details of the notice, AAP treasurer Deepak Bajpai said the notice was “bogus” as the Centre had been repeatedly targeting the party. “We will not give a point-wise reply to the assessment order as that would not be appropriate... They have declared all our donations in 2015-2016 illegal and treated it as taxable income. We have maintained the records of each and every paisa we have received,” he said.
The notice said the party had failed to disclose an income of ₹13.16 crore and had not recorded the complete details of 461 donors who had given ₹6.26 crore in total.
Mr. Bajpai denied the allegations and said the party had been submitting details to the Election Commission regularly. He said that while other parties were using black money to fund themselves, the AAP was being targeted, and this proved that this was a “vindictive” move.
Mr. Bajpai said the party had disclosed its entire list of donors on its website, but the Centre used its agencies to go after those who donated. The list of donors is no longer on the site.
( With inputs from IANS )
