18 lakh persons under I-T lens for 'suspicious' cash deposits

The income-tax department has identified 18 lakh people who have made 'suspicious' cash deposits post the November 8, 2016, demonetisation, including those having deposited over Rs 5 lakh, and will send emails and SMSes seeking an explanation about their source of funds.

These people will have to reply within 10 days to avoid any notice from the tax department or further enforcement action.

The department on Tuesday launched the 'Operation Clean Money' project under which the Central Board of Direct Taxes, with data analysis and profiling of assessees, will send e-communications to people whose cash deposits post the November 8 note ban do not match their income.

"Operation Clean Money/Swachh Dhan Abhiyan is a programming software which will be used to get answers on all the deposits made and only after preliminary answers from the people, if need be, we would take legal action against those people," Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia said.

CBDT chairman Sushil Chandra said 10 days' time would be given to people to reply to the e-communication and replies can be filed by logging on to the e-filing portal of the income-tax department.

"In the initial phase, we are looking at the data of those persons who have deposited Rs 5 lakh or more and deposits between Rs 3 lakh and Rs 5 lakh of suspicious nature and who have poor tax compliance after November 8," Chandra said.

Initially, this will cover 18 lakh tax-payers whose data will be uploaded on the e-filing portal. These people while filing their reply have to explain to the tax department the sources of their cash deposit.

Chandra said the tax department has compiled huge data which shows that there are over one crore accounts where above Rs 2 lakh cash has been deposited and involves the unique PAN of 70 lakh persons.

"We have compared this vast data with the income profile, turnover and the various other particulars of income available in the income tax data bank. In the first phase where the deposits in account are not matching with our data, we are putting the same on our e-filing portal seeking an explanation of source of income," he said.

Chandra said the intention of the scheme is to avoid any harassment to the tax-payer, they need not come to the office, and online verification would be completed.

"Swachh Dhan Abhiyan is a continuous exercise to widen and deepen the tax base. All the accounts in which money has been deposited will be tracked and we have hired the data analytics and we will identify the ultimate beneficiaries even in layered accounts," he said.