AAP dismisses Rs 30 cr tax notice, claims it has record of donations

Dubbing the Income Tax Department's Rs 30.67 crore tax notice as "bogus" and "vindictive action", the ruling Aam Aadmi Party on Monday said the party's "revolution" was being targetted using different government agencies and claimed that it has maintained the record of every donation.

"The IT department has announced the complete amount of the donations we received as illegal, and has put it under the category of taxable income although we have maintained the records of each paisa that we received from the donors," AAP National Treasurer Deepak Bajpai told media here.

The IT notice cited that the AAP had not disclosed income worth Rs 13.16 crore, and said the party's total taxable income calculated by it was Rs 68.44 crore for financial years 2014-15 and 2015-16, and the money received as donations in its bank account was not recorded in the account books.

The notice said the AAP had not recorded full details of at least 461 donors who had donated Rs 6.26 crore, each donation amount exceeding Rs 20,000.

The IT Department said the AAP had not disclosed donation of Rs 36.95 crore on its web site and the party had failed to respond to 34 opportunities given to it.

Bajpai dismissed this saying the party has been keeping and maintaining books of accounts and other documents (of contribution in excess of Rs 20,000) under Section 13 A of the Income Tax act.

"We have been submitting a report to the Election Commission about the donations received as per the law," he said.

He added that the party was being targetted by way of different government agencies.

"The whole country knows how other parties finance themselves through black money, yet it is AAP which is being targetted using different agencies. This shows that the IT notice is nothing but a vindictive action," he said.

--IANS

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