Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was served a Rs 30.64 crore notice by the Income Tax department on Monday.
On Sunday, Aam Aadmi Party celebrated five years of its foundation with Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal giving a call to vote for whichever candidate was in position to defeat BJP, which he accused of dividing India and doing to India in three years what Pakistan’s ISI could not in 60 years.
On Monday, the Income Tax department declared all the donations AAP has received as illegal, reported The Times of India. The tax notice has asked AAP why Rs 30.67 crore should not be recovered from the party. It has been asked to furnish a reply by December 7.
AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal called it the “height of 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,” he tweeted.
“All our donations have been declared taxable income and the department has demanded tax on the income. AAP has made all political donations transparent in its attempts to bring out Indian politics from the muddle of black money. The party’s honest politics is being appreciated the world over. But the government is trying to harass us,” AAP national treasurer Deepak Bajpai said.
The Income Tax department reportedly said that AAP had been given 34 chances to explain allegations that it had concealed details of a chunk of its overseas donations and the party has not been able to account for around Rs. 13 crore it received from its overseas supporters before the 2015 Delhi election, which it won.
AAP is also accused of not disclosing to the Election Commission details of 461 donors who contributed over Rs. 6 crore to their campaign.
Officials say their investigations show that AAP did not put up on its website details of nearly Rs. 37 crore in donations. Also, in documents to the Election Commission, AAP did not declare close to Rs. 30 crore received from donors, officials allege.
Kejriwal, 49, has alleged that the tax crackdown is part of the central government’s strategy to persecute AAP – one of its fiercest critics – and discredit its anti-corruption mission.