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10000 accounts in Assam on tax radar

Author: Avishek Sengupta
Publication: The Telegraph India
Date: December 17, 2016
URL:   https://www.telegraphindia.com/1161217/jsp/frontpage/story_125212.jsp

The income tax department will submit a list of over 10,000 bank accounts in Assam, which have seen a sudden surge in deposits post-demonetisation, to the Enforcement Directorate and the CBI before December 30.

"Post-demonetisation, several bank accounts which used to have minimal or small amount transactionshave seen a sudden surge in deposits indicating that illegal money is being parked there. The income tax department has made a list of 10,000 such accounts which will be handed over to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the CBI for further inquiry," a source in the department said today.

Of the 10,000 accounts, around 300 are that of high-profile account holders, the source said.

"The accounts are identified through the money trail method and comparing the deposit withc the income tax amount paid by the account holder, the department identifies if the money is illegal or not. At least 300 of those accounts belong to high-profile people. The lowest transaction in the shortlisted accounts is Rs 25 lakh," the source said.

Post-demonetisation, the Reserve Bank of India had instructed the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) to monitor bank accounts for suspicious transactions and report it to central investigative agencies. The IT source said this procedure involves several departments. The police, FIU, income tax and other departments will prepare their lists separately and submit it to the central agencies which will then filter the reports and take action accordingly.

"The instruction was given to the police, FIU, IT and other departments engaged in flushing out black money and preventing illegal hoarding of new currency. Our department is accordingly preparing the list," the source said.

"Once the lists are deposited by all the departments, they will be filtered by the kind of offence committed. Those who have evaded income tax or shown deposits not proportionate to their income statement will be raided and investigated by the income tax department. Offenders already on ED and CBI radars, if present on the list, will be grilled by the departments. The FIU will also take action against financial institutes (such as banks and insurance agencies) for any irregularities in their transactions,"

The income tax department is also working on preparing a similar list for the other northeastern states but the work is taking time as the department has a shortage of manpower and they also have to take into account tax exemption for people from Scheduled Tribe communities.

According to Section 10 (26) of the Income Tax Act, 1961, members of Scheduled Tribes in the Northeast, permanently residing in any area in the states of Nagaland, Manipur, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram and in certain areas of Assam and Meghalaya (district councils or regional councils created under the Sixth Schedule such as North Cachar Hills, Karbi Anglong and Bodo Territorial Council in Assam and Garo hills, Jaintia hills and Khasi hills in Meghalaya) and generating income from within their respective states are exempted from paying income tax.

"Hence, without an income statement, it is not possible to verify if the deposits are disproportionate. Our department is looking into the source of income in the doubtful accounts to find out if they are illegally earned or not," the source said.

In the meantime, an employees' association of the income tax department has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking more workforce for speedy recovery of money.

"At present, the department has 30-35 per cent posts lying vacant in almost all the supervisory positions. The vacancy at staff level is more severe, around 40 per cent, subjecting them all to unbearable extra workload," said the letter submitted by the Joint Council of Action, comprising Income Tax Employees Federation and Income Tax Gazetted Officers Association.

Money laundering

Income tax sleuths tonight raided the business establishment of a Bongaigaon resident, Halal Kar, suspecting him to have parked huge amounts of money in his employees' accounts in connivance with bank staff.

"It has come to the notice of the department that 28 employees working under Kar opened accounts in the bank post-demonetisation and Rs 49,000 was deposited in each of these accounts at regular intervals," a source in the income tax department said. An amount of Rs 49,000 was probably deposited as people depositing Rs 50,000 and more have to furnish PAN cards, he added.

The sleuths have sealed the bank accounts and are questioning Kar. "During interrogation, we found that he also deposited money in the accounts of a few people of the Garo community at Tura in Meghalaya, who are exempted from paying income tax," he said.

"We suspect that the bank employees are involved as it was not possible to open so many accounts when the rush was at its peak because of demonetisation and then deposit such amounts of money at regular intervals without being noticed," the source said.
 
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