NEW DELHI: With the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) setting June 30 as the deadline to dispose off demonetisation cases, the tax sleuths have zeroed up on 50,000 businesses and High Net-worth Individuals (HNI) over unexplained transactions during the period. “We have been pursuing all the high-ticket transactions done during the demonetisation period. We have prepared a list of businesses and HNIs, who have done high-value transactions during the period. Out of the list, we have zeroed up on 50,000 for further action,” a senior CBDT official said.
The official told TNIE that during the preliminary enquiry, none from the list gave satisfactory explanations for the high-value transactions.“Not all high-value transactions were suspicious. We have issued notices in many cases and many concerned persons and businesses came up with explanations that were later verified to our satisfaction. (But), in these (50,000) cases, the explanations were either not satisfactory or it could not be verified separately. They need detailed probe,” he said.
The CBDT had earlier identified 87,000 cases, where assesses had not filed their responses to income-tax notices issued post-demonetisation and had also issued directions to income tax offices across the country to probe financial transactions of about 3 lakh firms de-registered by the government for tax evasion and money laundering.
The IT department is likely to initiate action in the next few weeks. It is also looking into the accounts of businesses and people who stopped filing income-tax during the demonetisation period. The number of taxpayers who stopped filing, which had been consistently falling from 37.54 lakh in FY13 to 27.02 lakh in FY14, 16.32 lakh in FY15 and 8.56 lakh in FY16, jumped tenfold to 88.04 lakh in FY17. These numbers do not include those who have passed away or whose PAN cards have been cancelled or surrendered in that year.