No mismatch in donations, govt violated I-T Act: AAP

AAP ALLEGED THAT THE CBDT HAS VIOLATED THE INCOMETAX LAWS BY DISCLOSING INFORMATION OF A POLITICAL PARTY

NEWDELHI: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Tuesday denied allegations of the mismatch in its actual and declared donations to the Election Commission (EC).

The party alleged that the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has violated the Income Tax laws by disclosing information of a political party.

On Tuesday, The Indian Express reported that the CBDT, a statutory authority of the Union government, had flagged an alleged mismatch in the actual and declared donations of the party, terming it violation of the Representation of the People (RP) Act.

“The media report is purely baseless. Every single donation coming to the party is accounted for. The facts of this case are being twisted and misrepresented deliberately,” said Narain Dass Gupta, the party’s Rajya Sabha member of Parliamentelect, also a chartered accountant.

Citing section 138 of the Income Tax Act, Gupta said, “The law clearly prohibits disclosure of information of an assessee to anyone.”

In November last year, the IT department had issued a ₹30-crore notice to AAP for allegedly violating norms on collecting donations. The order for tax assessment issued on November 23, stated that “AAP incorrectly disclosed hawala money as voluntary donations.” It also declared all donations made to AAP in 2014-2015 illegal.

While I-T notice put ₹68.44 crore as the total taxable income of the party for 2015-16, the party said the donations were ₹55 crore.

“The reason why there is a discrepancy of ₹13 crore at the end of the Centre’s agencies is that their calculations have taken place at different points in time,” Gupta said.