18 lakh I-T notices to suspect accounts

New Delhi: The income-tax (I-T) department launched “Operation Clean Money” on Tuesday and sent notices to 18 lakh people whose large deposits of old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes in banks after demonetisation did not match with their I-T returns.

“In the initial phase, we are putting data of those persons who have deposited Rs 5 lakh or more and deposits between Rs 3 lakh and Rs 5 lakh of suspicious nature and who have poor tax compliance after November 8,” said Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) chairman Sushil Chandra.

The I-T department will send emails and text messages seeking explanations about their sources of funds. They will have to reply within 10 days to avoid a notice from the tax department or further enforcement action.

“Operation Clean Money/Swachchh Dhan Abhiyan is a programming software which will be used to get answers on all the deposits made and only after preliminary answers from the people, if need be, we would take legal action against those people,” revenue secretary Hasmukh Adhia said.

Mr Chandra said 10 days’ time would be given to people to reply to the e-communication and replies can be filed by logging on to the e-filing portal of the income-tax department. He said that tax department has compiled huge data which shows that there are over 1 crore accounts where above Rs 2 lakh money have been deposited and involves unique PAN of 70 lakh persons.