Income Tax Dept receives 12 lakh responses on deposits during demonetisation

Minister of State for Finance Santosh Kumar Gangwar on Friday informed Parliament that Income Tax department has received more than 12 lakh responses from 8.38 lakh distinct persons whose cash deposits during demonetization were not up to the mark with their tax profiles.

“To leverage technology and data analytics for e-verification of cash deposits made during the demonetisation period, I-T department has initiated ‘Operation Clean Money project(OCM). Under OCM, about 18 lakh persons have been identified whose tax profile were prima facie not in line with the cash deposit made by them during the demonetisation period.

“...more than 12 lakh responses have been received from 8.38 lakh distinct PANs/persons,” Minister of State for Finance Santosh Kumar Gangwar said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

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Gangwar further said that in case explanation of sources of cash is found justified, the verification will close.

Noting that enforcement actions such as searches and surveys are also conducted on appropriate cases, including those who are non-compliant, the Minister said “action in such cases are part of continuous process under the Direct Taxes law.”

Gangwar said investigations conducted by the I-T department post demonetisation have revealed various kind of malpractices and manipulations by certain persons/entities including owners of petrol pumps, CNG and gas agencies.

“Appropriate action against such persons is taken by the jurisdiction authorities of the ITD as per provisions of the Income-tax Act, 1961,” he said.

Stating that while deposits and sales of all petrol pumps, CNG and gas agencies have not been scrutinised, Gangwar pointed out in certain cases of petrol pumps/LPG distributorship/CNG pumps, excess cash deposits over and above sales made in corresponding period have been found during the enforcement actions by the ITD.

“During the period from November 9, 2016 to January 10, 2017 more than 1,100 searches and surveys were conducted by the Income Tax department apart from issuing more than 5,100 verification notices,” the minister said.

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“These notices led to the seizure of valuable of more than Rs 610 crore which includes cash of Rs 513 crore. Seizure in cash of new currency notes was about Rs 110 crore,” he added.

Further, the minister said undisclosed income detected in these new actions was more than Rs 5,400 crore.