New Delhi: The income tax department acts “irrespective of political affiliations” and based on “actionable intelligence” while conducting its search and seizure operations, the Department of Revenue in the Ministry of Finance said in a letter to the Election Commission of India (EC) Monday.
The tax department has faced criticism over some of its recent search and seizure operations targeted against the relatives and aides of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath ahead of the Lok Sabha elections beginning 11 April.
The revenue department made the statement in response to a letter written by the EC to the revenue secretary a day earlier regarding the series of income tax raids that the opposition has been quick to label as “politically motivated”.
The EC had advised the finance ministry that any action by its enforcement agencies during elections should be “neutral, non-discriminatory and impartial”. It had also asked to be kept in the loop about such actions.
In its statement, the revenue department said, “We understand the words ‘neutral’, ‘impartial’ and ‘non-discriminatory’ mean that we must act as and when information is available against anyone, irrespective of political affiliations. This is precisely the practice that the department follows and will continue to do so.”
The statement added that the EC should also advise its field officials to take strict enforcement action against any illicit money in electoral process and pass on the information to the tax department.
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‘Unaccounted cash’
On Tuesday, Revenue Secretary A.B. Pandey and Central Board of Direct Taxes chairperson P.C. Mody met EC officials on the issue.
Over the last few days, a series of raids were conducted against Nath’s aides across Bhopal, Indore, Goa and the National Capital Region drawing the ire of the Congress. The action followed a series of raids in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu as well.
Accusing the government of being “blinded by revenge and rage” and “misusing departments” like the I-T department and the Enforcement Directorate (ED), Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala Monday said, “We do hope that the Election Commission will take decisive action against the patently prejudiced officers of Income Tax Department and the ED who are trying to bulldoze and intimidate political opponents.”
However, in a separate statement late Monday, the I-T department claimed that its actions were backed by concrete intelligence.
Without referring to the Congress or Nath, the tax department claimed to have bust a Rs 281-crore racket of unaccounted cash in the search and seizure operations across 52 locations in 4 states.
“Searches in Madhya Pradesh have detected wide spread and well-organized racket of collection of unaccounted cash of about Rs. 281 cr through various persons in different walks of life including business, politics and public service,” said the tax department statement.
“A part of the cash was also transferred to the headquarter of a major political party in Delhi including about Rs 20 cr which was moved through hawala recently to the headquarter of the political party from the residence of a senior functionary at Tughlak Road, New Delhi. Meticulous records of collection and disbursement of cash in the form of hand written diaries, computer files and excel sheets found and seized corroborate the above findings,” it added.
Also read: I-T raids on Karnataka Congress & JD(S) leaders come with a ‘political script’
It is another matter as to who ordered the raids? But the fact is that unaccounted money has been recovered from the MP CM’s possession. The Congress must answer this, instead of blaming Modi or IT office.