The Congress alleged on Friday that the “honouring the honest” announcement made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is yet another amnesty scheme to “honour the dishonest”.

The Party’s media in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala said in a statement that BJP’s legacy is amnesty schemes for tax evaders and converting black money to white. He charged that tax anarchy, tax terrorism and raid raj of ED-Income Tax are the hallmarks of the Modi Government.

Surjewala said Modi re-published the speech he delivered on February 14, 2020. “Except for managed news headlines, PM’s announcements ended up being a ‘Zero-Sum Game’. Income Tax arrears under dispute have increased by 129 per cent in the last five years - The stark reality of Modi Government’s ‘Transparent Taxation’ is that income tax arrears have surged many-fold,” he added.

As per the budget, ₹9,40,000 crore of direct tax is under dispute, he said. “Of this, demands related to corporate tax amount to ₹4,88,000 crore while taxes on income and other heads amount to ₹4,50,000 crore. In contrast thereto, direct tax arrears as on March 2014 were only ₹4,10,000 crore, ie increase of 129 per cent in five years,” Surjewala said.

“Is announcing ‘three amnesty schemes” back to back honouring the honest? Repeated voluntary disclosure schemes are only meant to serve the ‘dishonest’ at the cost of the ‘honest’. These are convert ‘black money into white’ schemes, he accused. For a government that came to power promising to bring back ₹80 lakh crore worth of ‘black money’ from abroad, these ‘amnesty schemes’ expose the jumlas sold to the people,” he added.

Surjewala said the nightmare of ‘target based” tax collection is the new ‘tax terrorism. “In 2014, the Modi Government stated that it was junking the Direct Tax Code (DTC). Six years later, it has revived the same goal. The simple questions are: Why has the DTC not been implemented in the last six years? Are there any more benefits being planned for suit-boot friends before bringing in transparency or is there another revenge agenda on the cards?” he asked.

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