5.27 lakh assessees respond to Income Tax query on cash deposits

The Income Tax Department today said ‘Operation Clean Money’ launched for e-verification of large cash deposits made during the period from November 9 to December 30 last year has received an overwhelming response with more than 5.27 lakh taxpayers submitting their response out of the 18 lakh people contacted for the same.

The I-T Department said emails and SMSes were sent to 18 lakh taxpayers for submitting online response on the e-filing portal for verification of cash deposits of scrapped Rs 500 and 1,000 notes made in bank accounts.

The government claimed that the operation has seen an overwhelming response and till February 12, more than 5.27 Lakh taxpayers have already submitted their response.

Out of the 7.41 lakh accounts confirmed by the 5.27 lakh taxpayers, the cash deposit amount has been confirmed in more than 99.5% accounts.

“The Department is encouraged to note that taxpayers have increased the cash deposit amount in nearly 90,000 accounts and provided details of additional 25,000 bank accounts in which cash was deposited,” it said.

The explanation of cash deposit submitted by the taxpayer is being analysed in the context of nature of business and business profile in the earlier returns of the taxpayer.

This exercise has identified around 4.84 lakh taxpayers not yet registered with the e-filing portal.

The I-T Department is keeping a vigil on the PAN holders who have still not registered on the e-filing portal or who have not yet submitted their online response.

In order to facilitate online responses, the last date for their submission has been extended up to February 15. The taxpayers should submit their response within this further extended period with a view to avoid enforcement actions under the Income-tax Act and other applicable laws, the department said. #casansaar (PTI)