The Income Tax department has identified 18 lakh taxpayers who have made large deposits between November 9 and December 30, 2016, and has served them notices seeking explanations, the Central Board of Direct Taxes said in a statement.
The process has been named “Operation Clean Money” and the taxpayers in question will have to reply to the I-T department’s notice in the next 10 days. “Data analytics has been used for comparing the demonetisation data with information in ITD databases,” the statement read.
The I-T department said it is trying to verify these transactions “to reduce [the] compliance cost for the taxpayers while optimising its resources”. The taxpayers will need to submit their response to the department’s queries on the portal in order to avoid any further notice. “If the case is selected for verification, request for additional information and its response will also be communicated electronically,” the statement read.
The verification process will be closed if the taxpayer’s response is found to be justified, or if the cash deposit has been declared under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojna, the statement said. The taxpayer will not be expected to visit the Income Tax office in this process.
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