'Will make sure no one dares to do this again': Rahul Gandhi's 'guarantee' after Congress gets fresh tax notice

Lok Sabha elections 2024: Hours after the Congress received a fresh income tax notice worth Rs 1,700 crore over discrepancies in returns for previous years, Rahul Gandhi warned that "when the government changes", action will be taken against those who have “disrobed democracy”.

In a post on X, Gandhi said it will be ensured that no one dares to do all of this again.
"This is my guarantee," he said in the post in Hindi.

The fresh notice is for assessment years 2017-18 to 2020-21 and includes penalty and interest. Congress is already facing a funds crunch after tax authorities imposed a penalty of ₹ 200 crore and froze its funds. 

The party has not received any relief from the High Court in the case and is likely to move the Supreme Court.

The party has accused the BJP of squeezing it financially and of using tax authorities against it ahead of Lok Sabha elections beginning April 19.

Senior Congress leader, Jairam Ramesh, said, "The notices are being sent to cripple us financially. This is tax terrorism, and this is being used to attack the Congress, This has to stop." 

He asserted that the Congress's campaign for the upcoming parliamentary polls will continue and the party will take its guarantees to the people of the country.  "We will not be scared of these notices. We will be more aggressive and fight these polls," the former Union minister said.

In February, the I-T department had found fault in the party's tax returns and demanded ₹ 200 crore. The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) had asked the party to pay the dues and froze their accounts.

The Congress said the tax tribunal's order freezing its funds was "an attack on democracy" as the order came just ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

On Thursday, the Delhi High Court rejected petitions by the Congress challenging the initiation of tax reassessment proceedings against it for a period of four years.