Undeclared assets over Rs 50 lakh on CBDT radar
5 Lakh people to get SMSes & email today seeking clarification; can reply on portal
Authorities will scrutinise 10 years of income-tax returns of only those who are found to be holding undeclared wealth or bank deposits of over Rs 50 lakh, the Central Board of Direct Taxes chairman Sushil Chandra said. “This provision is only for those cases where in a search tax authorities find undeclared wealth or asset over Rs 50 lakh,” Chandra said, trying to allay apprehensions of unbridled powers to taxmen leading to harassment of people.
There are enough checks to ensure that no harassment happens, Chandra said. The CBDT, he said, was moving on a fast track to ensure all untaxed were brought under the tax net as part of Operation Clean Money, or the Swach Dhan Abhiyan. He said the government had already sent mails and SMSes to 13 lakh individuals from a list of 18 lakh who had deposited Rs 4.17 lakh crore in bank deposits or carried out transactions not matching with their tax profile.
“In fact, 5,000 (of those people) had already responded to the emails till today,” he told reporters on the sidelines of an event organised by Institute of Chartered Accountants of India on Thursday. The rest of the 5 lakh people would be receiving SMSes and emails on Friday seeking clarification. Chandra had earlier this week stated that 10 days would be given to people to reply to the e-communication, and replies could be filed by logging on to the e-filing portal of I-T department.
The CBDT has put up data about deposits and transactions made after the announcement of demonetisation on a dedicated portal that can be accessed by individuals giving their permanent account number. Chandra said the department had another set of data of about 10 lakh individuals who were identified using data analytics and taxpayer profiling to detect potential tax evasion. It will send notices to them soon, he said.
03RD FEBRUARY, 2017 , THE ECONOMIC TIMES , NEW DELHI
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