New Delhi:

Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Saket Gokhale on Friday said he has received 11 notices from the income-tax department in the last 72 hours and alleged that every attempt is being made to put pressure on the opposition ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

In a post on X, Saket Gokhale said some of the notices go back almost seven years.

“Got a total of 11 Income Tax notices in the last 72 hours for various years (some as far back as 7 years),” he said.

“It’s hilarious how the Modi government isn’t even pretending that they’ll let the elections be free and fair. Every attempt being made to pressurise the Opposition on the eve of Lok Sabha 2024,” the TMC leader said.

The TMC leader also shared screenshots of e-mails he received from the I-T department along with his post on the microblogging platform. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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| Photo Credit: MURALI KUMAR K

Resolving long-pending tax dispute, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday, proposed withdrawing all outstanding direct tax demands upto ₹25,000 from 1962 to 2009-10. In her interim budget speech, she noted that a large number of petty or disputed direct tax demands were burdening the system, dating as far as 1962. This would help 1 crore taxpayers, said Ms. Sitharaman.

Read : Budget 2024 live updates | Interim budget leaves tax structure untouched; FM details Centre’s achievements

“To improve taxpayer services, there are a large number of petty or disputed direct tax demands, many of them dating as far back as 1962, which cause anxiety to taxpayers. I propose to withdraw such outstanding direct tax demands upto ₹25,000 pertaining to years upto 2009-10 and Rs. 10,000 for the period from 2010 to 2015. This will help 1 crore taxpayers,” the Finance Minister said.

She also highlighted the government’s move to introduce Faceless Assessment and Appeal, thereby imparting greater efficiency, transparency and accountability and that by introducing a new form 26AS to file income tax returns the process has been made “simpler and easier”. Currently, the average time taken for processing of returns stands reduced from 93 days to 10 days from 2013-14, Ms. Sitharaman said.

The Finance minister presented her sixth consecutive budget speech to Parliament on Day 2 of the Budget session. Her hour-long speech was for an interim budget for the FY 2024-25 as a ‘stop gap’ measure for the transition period between April and June/July. After the Lok Sabha elections scheduled to be held in April-May, the new government will present a full-fledged budget. The roadmap for a ‘Vikasit Bharat’ (developed India) will be unveiled in the next budget speech.

In September last year, the income tax department asked taxpayers to respond to its intimation regarding outstanding demands for 2022-23 to clear refunds faster. In 2022-23, as many as 7.09 crore income tax returns (ITRs) were filed of which 6.96 crore ITRs were verified and 6.46 crore processed. The I.T department said that the notices for unsettled tax demands were issued to provide taxpayers relief in line with “principles of natural justice”.

With the withdrawal of historical tax demands, the hassles faced by both the I.T department and citizens will be greatly reduced.