Karnataka election 2018: Congress cries foul at I-T notice to chief secretary

BENGALURU: The Congress party has taken umbrage to a communique from the director general of income tax (investigations) alleging that five government departments in Karnataka had made payments meant for “election purposes” in the three months ended March.

“Intelligence received by us indicates that several big payments have been made to contractors of some departments of the state government of Karnataka in the last quarter of financial year 2017-18 which are meant to be used for election purposes,” according to the communique dated April 6 issued to chief secretary Ratna Prabha.

It identified the departments of animal husbandry, revenue, energy, water resources and public works and asked for details of payments exceeding Rs 25 lakh to contractors from January 1 to March 31, along with amounts of tax deducted. Information on payments made to the same contractors in 2016-17 has also been sought.


“We got the communique late on Friday,” Prabha told ET. “Our officials need a day to get all these details. We will furnish it very soon, by Monday evening.” “Let all agencies probe – our cooperation will be full, but the BJP’s vindictive politics would be exposed,” Congress national spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi told ET.

“Within three months, over Rs 30,000 crore has been paid through these five departments,” BJP state spokesperson S Suresh Kumar told ET.