With the Union Ministry of Finance cracking the whip on tax defaulters, the Income Tax (IT) Department has planned a slew of measures to probe unusual banking transactions and deposits since Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared the demonetisation drive on November 8.
Some of the stringent activities include raids by IT officials, assisted by Central and State law enforcing agencies, in spite of the shortage of staff in many commissionerates in Kerala, Pranab Kumar Das, Principal Chief Commissioner of Income Tax (Kerala), told The Hindu on Tuesday.
The raids would be intensified from December 15 to March 31 after assessing the huge investments that had come to banks and at jewellery shops that showed unusual business transactions. The Enforcement Department and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will be handed over cases in the wake of detections that go beyond the IT Act. All banking activities now go through a specialised software aimed at detecting suspicious transactions, top sources said.
Banks have been asked to cooperate with the IT officers to provide detailed information on people whose accounts had received undeclared deposits from November 10 to December 30. Those who have deposited or depositing black money in their bank accounts would have to pay tax under the proposed Pradhan Mantri Garib Yojana (PMGKY), an offering for tax evaders to come clean in their income.
Amendment
To circumvent any loopholes in the existing Income Tax Act, the Centre also brought in another amendment preventing tax evaders from declaring their income of the current fiscal in the next financial year. Such depositors may have to pay tax at 30 per cent excluding the surcharge and cess, officials said.
The IT Department has already swung into action following intelligence inputs that several syndicates operate at the ground level in converting banned currency notes into legal tenders for commission.
The modus operandi of the operation of these syndicates is to exchange voided Rs.500 and Rs.1,000 for commission ranging between 25 and 35 per cent. These syndicates operating at the national and State levels comprised ground-level operators and mediators and hawala agents. The ground-level operators would withdraw new currency notes within the prescribed weekly limits of Rs.24,000 for a commission and exchange the currency to mediators and agents.
