While the incometax (IT) department identified 1.8 million people whose cash deposits of banned noted did not appear to be in line with their taxpaying profile for the previous years, only 700,000 have complied with the tax department´s requirement of online verification.
Reaching the 1.1 million remaining depositors is going to beadaunting task, say tax officials.
The cumbersome process of getting them to explain their large deposits falls on the ITdepartment, which is facingamanpower crunch.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) had launched Operation Clean Money, which involved everification of large cash deposits made between November 9 and December 30. The ITdepartment had also issued advertisements asking depositors to check if they were named in the list of 1.8 million people and explain the source their cash deposits.
Tax officials extended the deadline for this verification from February to February 15.
ITofficials say the department´s current strength of 8,000 assessing officers in the country is not enough to go after the 1.1 million people.
Each officer will need to verify details of 1,375 cases, on an average, of such deposits during the demonetisation drive.
The ITdepartment hasasanctioned strength of 72,000, but is operating with 30 per cent vacancy at the moment.
Another big challenge in the process would be to reach out to the actual depositors, as 30 per cent of them are out of reach via emails or SMS.
The ITdepartment will now send letters to those who have not replied to the tax query in the given time period, asking them to disclose their source of cash deposits.
Under Operation Clean Money, the tax department has framed around eight categories of questions for filing the response.
One of the questions also asks how much of this money would be disclosed under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana, in whichataxpayer can pay 50 per cent tax and penalty, and come clean.
Meanwhile, considering the exhaustive data profiling required, the CBDT is in the process of hiring an external agency to do the advance profiling of potential tax evaders.
“We are in talks withafew external agencies to do the data mining.
We will finalise the name inaweek´s time,” said Sushil Chandra, chairman, CBDT.
Another big challenge in the process would be to reach out to the actual depositors, as 30 per cent of them are out of reach via emails or SMS.
The ITdepartment will now send letters to those who have not replied to the tax query in the given time period, asking them to disclose their source of cash deposits.
Under Operation Clean Money, the tax department has framed around eight categories of questions for filing the response.
One of the questions also asks how much of this money would be disclosed under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana, in whichataxpayer can pay 50 per cent tax and penalty, and come clean.
Meanwhile, considering the exhaustive data profiling required, the CBDT is in the process of hiring an external agency to do the advance profiling of potential tax evaders.
“We are in talks withafew external agencies to do the data mining.
We will finalise the name inaweek´s time,” said Sushil Chandra, chairman, CBDT.
Business Standard New Delhi,16th Feburary 2017
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