March 29, 2024: The Income Tax Department on Friday issued Rs 1700 crore notice to Congress Party. The notice has been issued a day after the Delhi High Court dismissed the party's petition challenging the tax notices.

The fresh notice is for assessment years 2017-18 to 2020-21 and includes penalty and interest. The tax department has already recovered Rs 135 crore from Congress' Delhi bank accounts towards tax arrears.

The Division Bench of Justice Yashwant Verma and Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav on Thursday dismissed four pleas filed by the Congress on similar terms as its earlier judgement, whereby identical pleas of the same political party were dismissed regarding the reassessment proceedings for three years.

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.

As per sources, Congress's 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 also said 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.