Rs 3-4 lakh crore black money deposited in banks post demonetisation

The government suspects that an estimated Rs 3-4 lakh crore of black money may have made its way to banks during the 50-day window provided for depositing the scrapped 500 and 1000 rupee notes post demonetization.

A senior official confirmed that the Income Tax Department has been asked to send notices to depositors of Rs 3-4 lakh crore on which tax could have been evaded. Data provided by banks shows that more than Rs 2 lakh in old notes was deposited in each of 60 lakh bank accounts after November 8 when the demonetisation was announced.

"The total amount deposited in these accounts is more than Rs 7.34 lakh crore and around half of this could well turn out to be black cash,'' a senior Income Tax Department official told Mail Today. According to estimates, close to Rs 15 lakh crore of the Rs 15.44 lakh crore high-value notes that were scrapped on November 8 could have ended up in bank accounts although the RBI has said that it is still cross-checking the numbers to arrive at the final figure.

The government is determined to track down the black cash stash. I-T officials will now look into the income tax returns of these individuals over the previous two years and see whether the income has been accounted for. More than Rs 10,700 crore cash was deposited in different accounts in the North-eastern states during this period which will also be looked into.

The Income Tax Department and the Enforcement Directorate are also examining details pertaining to over Rs 16,000 crore deposited in different accounts of cooperative banks. Besides Rs 25,000 cr cash was deposited in dormant bank accounts while nearly Rs 80,000 crore of loans were repaid in cash since November 8. Starting from November 8, 2016 various reports were called for from the banks based on different threshold of cash deposits made by different categories of persons. The reports were collated and analysed based on intelligence which has been available in the Government data bases, the official said.

After in-depth analysis, these reports have been disseminated to Income Tax Department, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and other law enforcement agencies. As many as 6.80 lakh accounts have found matches in the existing database of various reports available with the Government. Deposits of more than Rs 13,000 crore in Regional Rural Banks have also been identified.

The official said cash deposits of Rs 2 lakh to Rs 2.5 lakh per account, totalling to Rs 42,000 crore, are found to have common PAN, mobile number or address. The same would be looked into in detail by the Income-Tax Department. The government has analysed the deposits in Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) accounts in detail and amounts of cash deposited under different threshold in different regions of the country and shared the figures with the I-T department.
All cash deposits of more than one lakh rupees in cash under PMJDY accounts would also be looked into, based on the intelligence inputs. The Income Tax department has undertaken numerous actions, both intrusive and non-intrusive, based on the intelligence and in turn referred a number of cases for parallel investigation by the ED and CBI.
The actions have unearthed non-filers, huge amounts of unaccounted income and shell companies, the official said without giving details. The Income Tax department is also undertaking data analysis and comprehensive matching of the huge intelligence inputs with government databases to have a more effective and focused intrusive and non-intrusive actions in the coming days.

-Business Today