Banks accepted big deposits without PAN

THE DEPOSITS MADE WEEKS AFTER NOTE BAN INDICATE POSSIBLE COLLUSION OF OFFICIALS TO CONCEAL DODGY CASH

In the weeks after demonetisation, banks across India received about ₹1.13-lakh crore in “high-value deposits” from customers without valid documents, indicating possible collusion of officials to conceal dodgy cash, classified government data accessed by HT revealed.

About half of these transactions took place in six states -Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. The deposits have raised the suspicion of the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), a government agency that monitors illicit transactions.

A high-value transaction is defined as a bank deposit above ₹2.5 lakhs that the government made liable for tax scrutiny as part of its cash-purging, anticorruption campaign launched on November 8.

Together, these states also received a third of all high-value bank deposits – with and without identity documents -- made in the first two months of demonetisation. In these states, Jan-Dhan deposits under the government’s banking-for-poor programme were 25-30% higher than the national average.

But to be fair, these states are farming and trading hubs that see high volumes of cash deals. Plus, farm income is not taxed.

The November 8 scrapping of

CONTINUED ON P 6