‘IT penalty of Rs 135 cr on us … For what? Doesn’t IT want democracy to survive?’: Congress

Senior advocate and Rajya Sabha MP Vivek Tankha appeared before the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) on Friday to argue against the Income Tax Department’s decision to freeze the Congress’s main bank accounts on February 14. In an interview, he talks about the case against the party, what he told the tribunal, and the legal options before the party.

The Congress on Friday announced that Income Tax authorities had frozen its main bank accounts. What is the dispute about?

There was an assessment for the financial year 2018-’19. That assessment was completed with an addition of approximately Rs 103 crore plus interest, which came to Rs 135 crore. And that assessment had been upheld by the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals). We appealed against that in the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal in May 2023. It was pending a hearing and the date for final arguments is fixed in April. In between, on February 14, they froze all our bank accounts. Notices were sent to bankers to freeze all the transactions. On that day, we had approximately Rs 210 crore in our accounts.

What did you tell the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal?

My first argument was that when we have approximately Rs 210 crore in our accounts and the claim is for Rs 135 crore, why should you freeze all the accounts? You cannot freeze more than what we owe you finally, even if we don’t succeed in winning the appeal.

Secondly, I said elections are a festival of democracy. We, the Congress, are one of the largest stakeholders of this festival. And on the eve of the festival, if you are choking us completely, then this stakeholder will be out of that festival. So, I asked whether the IT Department doesn’t want democracy to survive in India.

Thirdly, I said the Congress had an