CBI, ED action may now follow I-T default probes

NEW DELHI: Trouble will now descend in threes for income tax defaulters with tax investigations coinciding or being followed by probes by the Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation, with the three agencies coordinating among themselves as well as using the power of higher-order data analytics, two government officials said on condition of anonymity.

The idea is to identify major crimes behind tax cases, they added.

This doesn’t currently happen, one of the officials explained, which means that sometimes people get away lightly.

“Most of the violations under the income-tax law are compoundable and people used to get

I-T officials said the CBI and the ED along with the tax dept have been successfully able to detect and act swiftly against financial crimes in recent months because of the help they get from data analytics, and mutual coordination.

“HDIL is one such case where data analytics played a significant role and the ED could effectively act against the away easily by paying a penalty of 20% or so... serious crimes hidden behind tax violations can no longer remain hidden,” one of the officials cited above said.

The officials said that the two agencies and the tax department accused,” said an official.

The revenue department is using technology to reduce the compliance burden on honest taxpayers, but at the same time, nab wilful defaulters, who earlier used to defraud the system, the officials said.

As a result, in about 10 days, the I-T dept has detected about a half-a-dozen serious cases of evasion and fraud, they added. have been successfully able to detect and act swiftly against crimes of financial nature in recent months because of the help they get from data analytics and mutual cooperation and