Most deposited Rs 2 lakh or more, some used one PAN for 20 accounts: Govt

REVENUE Secretary Hasmukh Adhia Thursday said deposits of Rs 2 lakh or more formed a sizeable chunk of the demonetised currency that found their way into bank accounts immediately after the November 8 announcement on withdrawal of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.

Asked if deposits of less than Rs 2 lakh constituted the majority deposits in accounts, Adhia said: “Na na, woh zyaada nahi hai. Rs 2 lakh se upar wale mein hi main hua hai. (No, that’s not big. The bulk of deposits were those above Rs 2 lakh.) And people thought Rs 2.5 lakh tak safe hai, so most of them have done Rs 2.25 lakh (deposits) in 10-15 accounts. We have cases in which 20 accounts are connected to a single PAN.”

Over two-thirds of the demonetised currency deposited in banks has come in the form of deposits over Rs 2 lakh — totalling around Rs 10.38 lakh crore.

“These are the immediate high-level cases, which apparently appear to be odd. The Operation Clean Money targets them in the first phase,” Adhia said a day after the Budget.

Deposits totalling Rs 5.48 lakh crore were made in 1.09 crore accounts. These comprise deposits between Rs 2 lakh and Rs 80 lakh. A total of Rs 4.89 lakh crore, comprising deposits of over Rs 80 lakh, were entered into 1.48 lakh accounts.

The government has also mined a deep data set of multiple deposits of between Rs 2 lakh and Rs 2.5 lakh in dozens of accounts against a single PAN number.

This has made the government’s task of nabbing the tax evader relatively easy. While a total of 18 lakh cases of suspect deposits have been identified by the department in the first phase, the Operation Clean Money would continue for the next two years, Adhia said.

“They (18 lakh cases) are all part of Operation Clean Money now. Whatever exercise we do and this is only the first phase, there will be phase two, phase three, phase four. It will go on for two years... so nobody should take it quietly that their turn has not come,” he said.

Many people deposited