In an attempt to verify large cash deposits made during the demonetisation period, the income tax (I-T) department is expected to launch the second phase of ‘Operation Clean Money’ next month to close in on unaccounted money making its way into banks but may ignore deposits below Rs 5 lakh on a standalone basis for the time being. The initiative will also try to link individuals with multiple accounts or PAN numbers who have deposited large sums of money.
Under Operation Clean Money initiative, government will appoint two data analytics firms in next 10 days. These firms will tally the post demonetisation deposit data with the Income Tax Returns (ITRs) and previous deposits to detect any anomaly and possible tax evasion. Deposits of above Rs 2 lakh totalling Rs 10 lakh crore were made post-demonetisation. Out of this, Rs 4.5 lakh crore is under verification and the remaining deposits were made by government agencies and departments like PSUs, or by such people whose deposits matched with the income and the pattern of deposits made earlier and so these are not under scrutiny.
At present, the I-T Department has begun analysing accounts which show a pattern of deposits or have some common linkage like common address, PAN, telephone number, email address or name and in the first phase of this initiative, the department sent SMS/emails to 18 lakh people who made suspicious deposits over Rs 5 lakh during the 50-day demonetisation period and over 7 lakh people replied in e-filing portal acknowledging that they have made such deposits.