Income Tax department sends Rs 30 crore notice to Aam Aadmi Party: Reports
Party leader Arvind Kejriwal called the tax crackdown a part of the Centre’s ‘strategy to persecute AAP’.
The Income Tax department has issued a tax notice worth Rs 30.67 crore to the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party on Monday, NDTV reported. The department claimed that the party has not disclosed income worth Rs 13 crore, and also has not recorded the details of 462 people who made donations to the party, Times Now reported.
The department sent the notice after going through the donations AAP received in 2014-’15, India Today reported, quoting unidentified I-T officials. The donations are taxable earnings, the department told AAP, and asked the party to pay Rs 30.67 crore as penalty.
Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal alleged that the tax crackdown was part of the Centre’s “strategy to persecute AAP”, NDTV reported.
In May this year, the Income Tax department had sent a show-cause notice to the party, for allegedly fudging its account books and evading tax on donations received. At that time too, Kejriwal had said it was a “clear case of political witch hunt”. “All agencies at the Centre’s disposal have been unleashed against AAP, its government in Delhi and its ministers.”