According to reports, the Income Tax (IT) department is conducting raids on political parties around the country on Wednesday in connection with alleged fake donations and tax fraud.
The raids are taking place in a number of cities across many states. According to reports, these political parties were implicated in major financial misconduct by accepting donations without the required regulatory compliances. According to sources, the Election Commission of India took action against such political parties who claimed IT exemption without meeting with statutory criteria in May this year, and eliminated 87 political parties from its list for fraudulent contribution and tax fraud, as well as breaking standards.
The IT team landed in Lucknow at the home of Rashtriya Krantikari Samajwadi Party president Gopal Rai.
Rai, according to reports, runs a number of non-governmental organisations. The IT department is looking at tax evasion instances.
The poll panel had said that it was taking action against over 2,100 entities, categorised as registered unrecognized political parties (RUPP) by it, for violating rules and election regulations, including those pertaining to submitting monetary donations, failing to update their address, and failing to update the names of office bearers.
According to the report, several of these parties were engaging in “severe” financial misconduct.
The poll panel moved after state chief electoral officers (CEOs) indicated that these RUPP were either “non-existent” on verification or that the letters given by authorities to verify their addresses and communication data had been returned as undelivered by the department of posts.
Following that, the EC decided to revoke certain privileges granted to these parties under the Symbols Order (1968), including the allocation of a single electoral symbol.
According to EC under Section 29 C of RP Act, 1951, 2,174 RUPPs have not submitted contribution reports and directed the concerned department to take action against those receiving donations without due statutory compliances.
