Income Tax dept issues 5,100 notices for suspicious deposits post cash ban

The income tax department has issued about 5,100 notices for high-value suspicious deposits post demonetisation and people have admitted to undisclosed income of over Rs 5,400 crore, Parliament was informed today. The department has conducted more than 1,100 search and survey operations and issued about 5,100 notices for verification of suspicious transactions of high-value cash deposits, Minister of State for Finance Santosh Kumar Gangwar said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.

“These actions led to seizure of valuables of more than Rs 610 crore which includes cash of Rs 513 crore and admission of undisclosed income of more than Rs 5,400 crore till January 10, 2017,” he said.The department has identified 17.92 lakh individuals whose tax profiles were not in line with the cash deposits made by them during the 50-day demonetisation window that ended on December 30, 2016. As part of the initial phase, it had sought online response on source of cash deposits made by these people.

To another query, Gangwar said enforcement actions of the tax department during April 1, 2014 to December 21, 2016, have led to admission of undisclosed income of more than Rs 60,000 crore and seizure of undisclosed assets worth Rs 2,607 crore. “About Rs 8,400 crore have been brought to tax on account deposits made in unreported foreign bank accounts in HSBC cases in last about 2 years and about Rs 8,500 crore of credits in the undisclosed foreign accounts of Indians whose names were disclosed by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) have been detected,” he said.

In another reply, Gangwar said the tax department has conducted 848 searches during April-December 2016 and seized assets of Rs 1,133 crore. The undisclosed income admitted to in the said searches was Rs 11,856 crore. Further, 5,015 surveys were conducted in April-December which brought to light undisclosed income of Rs 9,454 crore. #casansaar (Source - Financial Express)