60,000 people under I-T lens for cash transactions

IT SOURCES SAID THEY WILL NOW INTENSIFY SEARCHES ON PEOPLE WHOSE BANK DEPOSITS DO NOT MATCH THEIR DECLARED INCOME

NEWDELHI: The Union government is planning to issue notices to 60,000 people to explain their sources of income, officials said on Friday, as part of the operation to hunt tax evaders that began with the November 8 demonetisation exercise.

The notices are being readied for people identified from their bank deposits and purchases in the days since high-value currency notes of 500- and 1000-denominations were made illegal, forcing them to present them at banks and RBI counters to retrieve their value. Operation Clean Money was launched on January 31 to detect slush funds deposited with banks and used for high-value purchases such as property and gold.

“Under Operation Clean Money, more than 60,000 persons, including 1,300 high risk persons, have been identified for investigation into claims of excessive cash sales during the demonetisation period,” the finance minitry said on Friday, citing data until February.

Officials had expected at least ₹1.5-2 lakh crore of “wealth destruction” as black money would either get destroyed or deposited in banks. A major chunk of the black money deposited in banks is supposed to go to the coffers of the government as taxes, and rest get locked in the new bank deposit scheme under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY).