The deposits made in old Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes within the 50-day demonetisation window provided by Prime Minister Narendra Modi have crossed the Rs 10 lakh crore mark. Over one crore bank accounts were into use to make the transfer.
Surprised by the huge deposits, the Income Tax Department has begun its operation to bring out the black money keepers out in the open. A total of 18 lakh bank accounts with over Rs 5 lakh deposits each have been circled out by the tax department.
To probe the holders of these accounts further, the taxmen will send them emails and SMSes under the newly launched 'Operation Clean Money' project seeking explanation about their source of funds.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) supervised project gives these people 10 days time to reply to avoid any notice from the tax department or further enforcement action.
CBDT Chairman Sushil 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.
"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," Chandra said.
Chandra 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.
