HIGHLIGHTS
- Over 1.5 lakh cases of large deposits with unexplained source of income are under I-T lens
- During 2018-19 Gujarat region had the highest number of under scrutiny cases
- In 2017-18 ranking Tamil Nadu topped the list followed by Gujarat, Andhra and Telangana, Karnataka and Goa
Over 1.5 lakh cases of large deposits in banks with unexplained source of income are under the taxman’s scrutiny. These are cases of those who dumped large amount of demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes in bank accounts and had no previous record of such income or tax liability declared in their tax returns.
Interestingly Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state Gujarat leads the race in terms of number of demonetisation-related cases selected for scrutiny for 2017-18 and 2018-19.
During 2017-18, only 20,088 cases of huge sums of money deposited in banks were identified by the tax department. These cases pertained to the demonetisation period — between November 8, 2016 and December 31, 2016.
During 2018-19, 1,34,574 such cases were selected for scrutiny. During 2017-18, notice under Section 142(1) of the Income Tax Act, 1961, were sent out to 2,99,937 depositors who had dumped large sums during demonetisation but did not file income-tax return.