I-T sends Rs 30 cr notice to AAP, after 34 chances to explain

A day after its five-year anniversary fanfare, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was served a notice of Rs 30 crore by the Income Tax (I-T) department on Monday for alleged discrepancies in donations it received, a move the party has termed "political vendetta".

Tax officials claimed that the party was given 34 chances to explain the allegations that it had concealed the details of a chunk of donations. "The AAP had not recorded donations of around Rs 13 crore in its books of accounts and in the audited income and expenditure account filed along with return of income tax for the 2014-15 financial year," the notice states.

The AAP has also been accused of not disclosing to the Election Commission the details of 461 donors who contributed over Rs 6 crore to their campaign and incorrectly disclosing 'Hawala entries' as voluntary donations.

"The party took Rs 2 crore during financial year 2014-15 from a Hawala entry operator in Delhi. The same was incorrectly disclosed as voluntary donations," it added.

It further added that the Delhi ruling party had not disclosed the donations of Rs 36.9 crore on its website. "However, on being caught, it withdrew the details from its website as reported in media on December 26, 2016," the notice further stated.

Delhi Chief Minister and party's national convenor Arvind Kejriwal called it "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 a height of political vendetta," he tweeted.

AAP national treasurer Deepak Bajpai claimed it was another attempt by the BJP government at the Centre to "harass" them. "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," he said.

This was not the first time when AAP has been slapped with an income tax notice. In December 2016, the department served the party a notice citing discrepancies in donors' list. Earlier this year, the I-T department asked the party to explain the discrepancies in its report on donations received in 2014.