CHENNAI: The Tamilnad Mercantile Bank (TMB) has not filed statement of financial transactions (SFTs) pertaining to cash deposits of over Rs 2,700 crore involving more than 10,000 accounts, the Income Tax department has said.
The department said that during verification at the bank to address reporting entity compliance issues, officials also found discrepancies in specified credit card payments involving total transactions worth Rs 110 crore, dividend distribution of more than Rs 200 crore, and shares issued for over Rs 600 crore.
Further, SFTs filed by the bank were found incomplete in several respects. The bank had failed to report major transactions that included interest payment of more than Rs 500 crore, time deposits, cash deposits, and withdrawals in current accounts.
‘Verification reveals defective filing of Form 61B for AEOI’
The verification also revealed defective filing of Form 61B for Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) about account holder who are “resident” of other countries. TMB officials could not be reached for their comments. Usually, information is received about financial transactions of taxpayers from Reporting Entities, such as banks, forex dealers, and sub-registrars.
The information furnished by the reporting entities is used for display to the taxpayer, through the e-filing system, in the form of Annual Information Statement (AIS). This is an important step towards facilitating taxpayers for filing their return of income accurately.
In the recent past, too, verification was conducted by the I-T department on two cooperative banks in Uttarakhand and transactions exceeding a few thousand crore, not reported by the banks, were identified. In order to explain the legal obligations and processes and to address difficulties faced by the reporting entities, outreach programmes are being regularly organised by the department across the country. This is another initiative of the department to facilitate ease of compliance, the release said.