New Delhi: The Income Tax Department suspects that nearly Rs 3-4 lakh crore of evaded income has been deposited in banks post the demonisation drive that began two months ago and is scrutinising the details, PTI reported quoting an official.
Reports indicate that nearly 95%-97% of the Rs 15.44 lakh crore that was demonetized on November 8 is back in the banking system. The expectation of the government is that even assuming that 20% of this amount was black money, it would be extinguished because it would not be returned.
Out of the total currency demonetized, there are indications that only around Rs 14,000 lakh crore is back in the formal banking system. Hence, the Income Tax Department suspects that some portion of the returned currency may be unaccounted cash.
The IT department also suspects that more than Rs 2 lakh crore was deposited in over 60 lakh bank accounts post-demonetisation and that around Rs 10,700 crore cash was deposited in bank accounts in north eastern states, some of which are exempt from paying income tax.
The income tax department, along with the enforcement directorate is also looking into over Rs 16,000 crore deposited in cooperative banks, PTI reported.
Holders of the old currency were given an option to exchange or deposit them in bank accounts until December 30.
"Starting from November 8, 2016 various reports were called for from the banks based on different threshold of cash deposits made by different categories of persons. The reports were collated and analysed based on intelligence which has been available in the Government data bases," the official said.
After in-depth analysis, these reports have been disseminated to Income Tax Department, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and other Law Enforcement Agencies.
The deposits of more than Rs 13,000 crore in Regional Rural Banks have also been disseminated.
Besides, "cash deposits in terrorist affected states have also been disseminated to the concerned law enforcement agencies and appropriate actions have been taken in such cases," he said.
The official said cash deposits of Rs 2 lakh to Rs 2.5 lakh per account, totalling to Rs 42,000 crore, are found to have common PAN, mobile number or address. The same would be looked into in detail by the Income-Tax Department.
The government has got analysed the deposits in Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) accounts in detail and amounts of cash deposited under a different threshold in various regions of the country and shared it with I-T department.
"All cash deposits of more than one lakh rupees in cash under PMJDY accounts would also be looked into, based on the intelligence inputs," he said.
It has come to the notice of the government that more than Rs 25,000 crore have been deposited in cash in re-activated dormant bank accounts and the details have also been shared with the Income Tax department.
Similarly, nearly Rs 80,000 crore of repayment of loans in cash above a certain threshold post demonetisation has also been shared with law enforcement agencies.
"The Income Tax department has undertaken numerous actions, both intrusive and non-intrusive, based on the intelligence and in turn referred a number of cases for parallel investigation by the ED and CBI. The actions have unearthed non-filers, huge amounts of unaccounted income and shell companies," the official said without giving details.
The Income Tax department is also undertaking data analysis and comprehensive matching of the huge intelligence inputs with government databases to have a more effective and focused intrusive and non-intrusive actions in the coming days.
"It is already taking actions in cases where cash deposits above Rs 50,000 have been made without quoting of PAN," he said.
"The Income Tax Department is using tools and its sources to identify each of these persons and is confident that there would a big expansion in the tax base and a quantum jump in direct tax collection," the official added.
(With PTI inputs)
Comments
0 comment