EC to meet revenue secretary, CBDT chairman on IT raids

New Delhi, April 9 (IANS) The Election Commission (EC) is to meet the Revenue Secretary A.B. Pandey and the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Chairman P.C. Mody on Tuesday to discuss the ongoing income tax raids in several states, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, an official source said.

An official said that the EC has called Pandey and Mody to seek their explanation on the tax raids after the Congress raised the issue accusing the ruling BJP of misusing the enforcement agencies.

The EC had on Sunday "strongly advised" the Finance Ministry that any action by its enforcement agencies during election time should be "neutral" and "non-discriminatory" and officials of the poll panel should be kept in the loop about such raids.

The EC moved the advice after the Income Tax (I-T) Department on Sunday conducted raids in Madhya Pradesh. The Department had recently carried out similar searches at the residential and official premises of some politicians and other people in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.

Since the model code of conduct came into force on March 10, the I-T Department has carried out several raids on political leaders.

On Monday, the Department said it had detected a "widespread and well-organised" racket of collecting unaccounted cash of around Rs 281 crore during raids carried out on close aides of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath and others.

The I-T officials also claimed to have recovered Rs 14.6 crore of "unaccounted" cash during the searches and seized diaries as well as computer files on suspect payments made between Madhya Pradesh and Delhi.