Hyderabad: The income-tax department is asking taxpayers to verify online the deposits they made in their accounts post demonetisation and respond to queries of any mismatch. An official from the I-T department said that the details of depositors with income of more than 2.5 lakh was with the Central Board of Direct Taxes and about 2 lakh bank customers were identified from the two Telugu states as having this income.
“Once we get the details, we will categorise the depositors in three categories — above Rs 1 crore, Rs 10 lakh to Rs 1 crore and below '10 lakh — for taking further action,” the official said. He said that the Income Tax department provided an option to all those who deposited more money against their actual income, to give their deposit and tax details by logging in to https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in.
“This is a chance to pay advance taxes as per the slabs revised in the recent Union Budget. The users can find e-notices at their account with the e-filing portal. Once the CBDT analyses the entire track record, it will send notices to the identified depositors,” he explained. On the question of raids and surveys, another official said, “It is not possible to hold simultaneous raids and surveys on the identified depositors in case they fail to pay tax. We need up to 10 teams to hold surveys and raids.
“We shall focus on the depositors category-wise. Those who deposited more than Rs 1 crore will face such raids in the first phase, followed by two more phases based on the categories. Our aim is to insist that depositors pay tax, but not by scaremongering.” He said all depositors who deposited more than Rs 2.5 lakh of the demonetised currency will get notices seeking explanation on the source of income.
An official from the TDS section of the I-T department said that a few bankers have uploaded the depositors list without PAN details. “We are insisting that bankers provide PAN details of the depositors,” the official said. Meanwhile, CBDT chairman Sushil Chandra on Thursday said that as much as Rs 4.17 lakh crore of suspicious cash was deposited by about 18 lakh people post demonetisation. Of the people whose data the I-T department now has, email and SMS queries have been sent to 13 lakh people on Thursday.
“We have (accumulated) around 18 lakh persons data amounting to '4.17 lakh crore deposits into accounts. Another data (for) 10 lakh is ready. We want that this should be completed and we have today issued 13 lakh SMS and email to the persons about whom we have details,” he said. The rest of the 5 lakh people would be receiving SMS and emails tomorrow for clarification under the “Operation Clean Money”.
The CBDT, he said, is moving on a very fast track to ensure all untaxed are brought under the tax net. The information on 18 lakh depositors is part of CBDT’s ‘Swachh Dhan Abhiyan’ drive that uses data analytics and taxpayer profiling to detect potential tax evasion on cash deposits post November 8. He said the Income Tax Department has identified 18 lakh people who have made “suspicious” cash deposits post demonetisation. Earlier this week, he had stated that 10 days’ time would be given to people to reply to the e-communication.
