Cash deposits of Rs 2.89 lakh crore in 13.33 lakh accounts post note ban under I-T radar

9.72 lakh persons have deposited Rs 2.89 lakh crore in 13.33 lakh accounts post demonetisation, the I-T department said.

New Delhi: The Income Tax department on Thursday said that cash deposits of Rs 2.89 lakh crore in 13.33 lakh accounts is under its radar.

Using data analytics, 13.33 lakh accounts of some 9.72 lakh persons with unusual cash deposits of around Rs 2.89 lakh crore was identified and response sought.

The resource was captured "within a short span of 3-4 weeks," the I-T department statement said, without saying how many of them were genuine deposits and how many were unaccounted money.

It also did not give details of tax collected on unaccounted money. While Rs 15,496 crore was admitted as undisclosed income, surveys resulted in seizure of Rs 13,920 crore.

Furthermore, About 14,000 properties worth over Rs 1 crore each are under its scrutiny as their owners have not filed income returns.

The report comes a day after RBI filed its annual report stating that an astronomical Rs 15.28 lakh crore, or 99 percent of the junked 500 and 1,000 rupee notes, have returned to the banking system.

The Reserve Bank, which has so far shied away from disclosing the actual number of junked currency deposited after the November 8, 2016, decision, said in its Annual Report for 2016-17 that only Rs 16,050 crore out of the Rs 15.44 lakh crore of the old high denomination notes have not returned.

While the counterfeit currency made up for a minuscule number, RBI post-demonetisation spent Rs 7,965 crore on printing new Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 and other denomination notes, more than double the Rs 3,421 crore spent in the previous year.

After note ban, there has been 158 percent increase in number of searches (from 447 to 1,152 groups) and more than doubling of seizures to Rs 1,469 crore from Rs 712 crore.

There also has been 38 percent increase in admission of undisclosed income (from Rs 11,226 crore to Rs 15,496 crore), it said.

Surveys jumped near three-fold to 12,520 and there was 44 percent increase in undisclosed income detected (from Rs 9,654 crore to Rs 13,920 crore).

The department said the number of e-returns of individual taxpayers filed till due date of August 5, 2017 increased to 2.79 crore from 2.22 crore returns filed during the corresponding period of last year.

With PTI Inputs