The Income Tax department is scrutinising the election affidavits filed by political party candidates who have become Members of Parliament or Legislative Assemblies—affidavits that contain details of their movable and immovable assets.
This exercise, which has been going on for some months now and is at present in its last leg, is being undertaken to find whether the information submitted in the affidavit by the candidates matches the income that they have declared in the past or whether there are discrepancies with the intention to hide undeclared “income”.
As part of the exercise, I-T officials are also trying to find out whether any politician had evaded any tax in the past or had not declared any material information in the new affidavit, which he or she had declared in past affidavits.
Officials said that the entire exercise, once completed, will later be used to issue notices to the people’s representatives, asking them to explain the discrepancies and if they are not able to give a valid justification, the department will register cases against them.
Officials said that the verification of the affidavits of the politicians will help the department assess if they had paid appropriate taxes as declared in their statements with the two different authorities, i.e., one while filing their annual income tax return with the I-T department and the other they filed with the Election Commission. Sources said the I-T department has asked some politicians (most of whom are MLAs), who prima facie have “hidden” information, to submit their recent income tax returns as well as of their dependents whose names they have mentioned in affidavits filed with the EC.
As per a recent information shared by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) to the Supreme Court, while submitting an affidavit in response to a petition filed by an NGO, the CBDT had stated in September that it was investigating the assets of seven Lok Sabha MPs and 98 MLAs across the country after it found discrepancies regarding what they had declared in their election affidavits and what they actuAally owned. The NGO had earlier submitted a list of 26 Lok Sabha MPs, 11 Rajya Sabha MPs and 257 MLAs to the tax department seeking verification of their election affidavits, while alleging substantial increases in their assets compared to asset details given by them in previous election affidavits. Officials said that the CBDT has been coordinating with the Election Commission of India for the verification of affidavits filed by candidates of parties as part of efforts to curb black money for the past six-seven years. “In 2012, the exercise had gained some speed due to the whole anti-black money ‘movement’ that was going on, but after that nothing happened. The exercise has been started again,” a source familiar with the development said.