Operation Clean Money: 18 lakh accounts under I-T department lens

Following up on their efforts to unearth unaccounted money, the income tax (I-T) authorities are scrutinising these accounts and have asked taxpayers to revert to their queries in 10 days.

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Income Tax Department Building. (Express photo by Vasant Prabhu)

Launching the ‘Swachh Dhan Abhiyan’ or ‘Operation Clean Money’ on Tuesday, the government said it had identified 18 lakh persons who deposited amounts of `5 lakh or more between November 9 and December 30 but whose income profiles did not match the amounts deposited.

Following up on their efforts to unearth unaccounted money, the income tax (I-T) authorities are scrutinising these accounts and have asked taxpayers to revert to their queries in 10 days.

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Revenue secretary Hasmukh Adhia was quoted by PTI as saying: “Operation Clean Money/Swachh Dhan Abhiyan is a programming software which will be used to get answers on all the deposits made and after preliminary answers from the people. Then only, if need be, we would take legal action against those people.”

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In a demonetisation exercise, the government had on November 8 announced that currency notes with denominations of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 would no longer be legal tender and had asked people to deposit these notes in their bank accounts, allowing for some portion to be exchanged across the counter.

Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) chairman Sushil Chandra said at a press conference that the account-holders whose deposits did not match their incomes, as per data with the department, would be alerted on their e-filing portals. “We will be seeking answers about the source of income,” Chandra said.

The tax department has compared cash deposits made during the demonetisation period with taxpayers’ income profiles to cull out suspicious cases. Should these taxpayers not submit a response within 10 days, the department would initiate legal action.

“The responses of taxpayers will be assessed against available information. If the explanation is valid, the verification will be closed without a visit to income tax office. The verification will also be closed if cash deposits are declared under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY),” the government said in a statement. Chandra said more than 1 crore accounts had seen deposits of more than `2 lakh in the last 50 days in 2016. Of these, the accounts of 70 lakh individuals were linked to their permanent account numbers (PAN).

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Pointing out that money had lost anonymity after demonetisation, he exhorted depositors to come clean and use the PMGKY to declare any unaccounted income. The department, he said was using data analytics to match the deposits with the department’s database on incomes.

PMGKY is aimed at giving those who may have evaded taxes a chance to come clean. The scheme was launched on December 17 and will remain open till March 31. A person declaring undisclosed income would need to pay a tax of 30 per cent, a penalty of 10 per cent and a PMGKY cess of 33 per cent on the tax.