Income Tax Department has identified at least 100,000 “high-risk individuals” with over £17.2 billion deposits in their bank accounts. Tax authorities will soon take action under the second phase of “Operation Clean Money”, launched by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. He said more than 9100,000 people have been added to the tax net following action taken by the IT department on tax evaders after demonetisation.
Jaitley also unveiled a website for the initiative. It will contain data and information gathered during the demonetisation drive. “It is time of reckoning for those who evade tax. We want to change the habit from non-tax compliant to tax compliant,” he told reporters. The minister also assured that honest taxpayers have nothing to fear. “Those who pay honestly and on time have no reason to worry.” Over £1.6 billion was yielded in unaccounted money and assets worth about
£90 million were seized during the first phase.
Jaitley said demonetisation helped faster digitisation and “people have realised the risk of dealing in excessive cash.” Central Board of Direct Taxes chairman Sushil Chandra said between January and April, the department had identified over 1800,000 people where bank deposits were not in line with their tax returns or identified sources of income. Subsequent investigation helped in a 22 per cent growth in e-filed returns. He said the tax department gave enough opportunity to people in the high risk category to come clean, however, now the department will launch search and survey operations against those who failed to avail repeated chances given to them.
