Since the announcement of note ban on November 8, Income Tax (I-T) department has issued around 3,000 notices to assessees for unmatched deposits in bank accounts, while it has seized a total of Rs 393 crore in cash and jewellery over the past five weeks. The taxmen have come to its notice that people have been unscrupulously trying to convert their black money holdings in cash into white by depositing in bank accounts.
“After the demonetisation, we collected information almost on a real time basis. Based on information screening we have conducted search and seizures in about 291 cases. We have carried out surveys in 295 cases. We have also issued around 3,000 notices on the basis of deposits in bank accounts,” Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Chairman Sushil Chandra told reporters here.
Disclosing the details of total seizure, he said, “The total cash seizures post note ban has amounted to Rs 316 crore, of which new currency is above Rs 80 and jewellery seizure is Rs 76 crore -- making the total seizure worth Rs 393 crore. The admitted concealed income on the basis of these surveys is Rs 2,600 crore.”
The I-T department has also found that the common route for misuse include using cash for purchase of bullion, jewellery, back-dating of cash transaction, depositing cash in multiple accounts just below Rs 2.50 lakh, depositing cash in Jan Dhan, dormant and shell company accounts and use of cash for repayment of loans.
“CBDT is collecting data of all bank accounts, and analysing this data with the existing Income Tax data. So the assessees should know that their deposits in bank accounts are being watched. We are examining whether it is explained money or not. Therefore, they should come very clean under this scheme which is the last window available for anyone,” Chandra said.
However, Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia said that within a month’s time banks would accumulate PAN numbers of all account holders except for Jan Dhan accounts. “In 12 cases of unscrupulous conversion of old notes into new currency, CBI has filed FIRs, while ED has filed 17 cases of money laundering,” Adhia said.