Lok Sabha Question No. 1162 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2018-02-09
Subject: Suspicious Cases of Deposits after Demonetisation
Ministry: FINANCE
Asked by: NALIN KUMAR KATEEL, B.N. CHANDRAPPA, DODDAALAHALLI KEMPEGOWDA SURESH

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF FINANCE

## DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.1162

TO BE ANSWERED ON FRIDAY, 9 TH  FEBRUARY, 2018

MAGHA 20, 1939 ( SAKA )

## SUSPICIOUS CASES OF DEPOSITS AFTER DEMONETISATION

1162:  SHRI NALIN KUMAR KATEEL: SHRI B.N. CHANDRAPPA: SHRI D.K. SURESH:

## Will the Minister of FINANCE be pleased to state:

- (a)  whether  the  Government  has  identified  large  number  of  suspicious  cases  of individuals/companies who have made huge deposits and their monetary assets do not match their tax profile after demonetisation;
- (b) if so, the number of individuals/ companies who have made huge deposits along with the number of suspicious cases identified in this regard, company/bankwise; (c) whether the Government has taken any steps against such individuals/ companies involved in such malpractices, conducted investigations and identified the source of
- unaccounted deposits, if so, the details thereof; and
- (d) the reaction of the Government thereto?

## ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE FOR FINANCE (SHRI SHIV PRATAP SHUKLA)

(a) &  (b):      As  a  part  of  post-demonetisation  exercise,  Operation  Clean  Money (OCM) was launched by the Government on 31st January 2017, with the mission to 'Create  a  tax  compliant  society  through  a  fair,  transparent  and  non-intrusive  tax administration where every Indian takes pride in paying taxes'.

As a part of this exercise, the cash deposit data was analysed to identify persons whose cash transactions did not appear to be in line with the tax payer's profile. Preliminary analysis resulted in identification of about 17.92 lakh persons for verification process in  the  first  phase.  Online  verification  of  cash  transactions  was  enabled  and  the information in respect of the identified cases was made available in the e-filing window of the PAN holder (after log in) at the portal https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in. The taxpayer was able to submit online explanation without any need to visit Income Tax office. Email and SMS were sent to the taxpayers for submitting online response on the e-filing  portal.  As  a  result,  nearly  11.46  Lakh  persons  submitted  online  response  in respect of 17.44 Lakh accounts.

High  risk  cases  were  made  available  to  the  field  formations  of  the  Income  tax Department  using  an  internal  online  portal  for  effective  monitoring  and  follow-up. However, company-wise/bank-wise data is not maintained centrally by Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT).

(c) & (d): Notices u/s 142(1) of the Income tax Act have been issued to those persons who have deposited cash of Rs 15 Lakh or more but had not filed their return of income till the due date of filing. As a result, returns of income have been filed by 55,884 such persons.

Further, Data analytics is used to match information in Income-tax return with cash deposit data and identify high risk cases for further verification/investigation.  In all the cases of suspected tax evasion, appropriate actions are undertaken by the Income-tax Department (ITD), including against individuals/companies involved in malpractices after demonetisation. Such appropriate action under direct tax laws includes searches, surveys, assessment of income, levy of taxes, penalty and prosecution as applicable. Post-demonetisation,  during  the  period  09/11/2016  to  10/01/2017,  more  than  1,100 search, seizure and survey actions were taken by the ITD. These actions led to seizure of valuables of more than Rs. 610 crore, which includes cash of Rs. 513 crore (including new currency of more than Rs 110 crore).

The  provision  of  section  138  of  the  Income-tax  Act  prohibits  the  disclosure  of information of individual assessee under investigation.

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