The Centre on Tuesday launched a website, “Operation Clean Money”, which will record the names of tax offenders, details of raids conducted by the Income Tax department and rate the risk factor of defaulters from high to low, PTI reported. The site was announced the same day raids were conducted across premises belonging to Congress leader P Chidambaram and Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who inaugurated the portal, said, “Post-demonetisation, personal income tax return filing has gone up due to ownership of anonymous money being identified.” “The new website will help honest tax payers.” Jaitley also warned those who hoard black money or deal with “excessive” amounts of cash and said, “It is no longer safe to deal with tax-evaded money.”
The website, created by the Central Board of Direct Taxes, will also put out the names of bank customers who deposited an “unusual” amount of money into their accounts within 50 days since Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced demonetisation on November 8. The portal is also expected to help tax payers and the tax authorities interact with each other using the customer’s Permanent Account Number as a reference.
“Undisclosed income of Rs 16,398 crore has been identified post demonetisation.” CBDT Chairman Sushil Chandra said, adding that there was a 22% growth in e-filed returns post demonetisation. As many as 17.92 lakh people had been identified for unexplained deposits post demonetisation, Chandra added.
Limited-time offer: Big stories, small price. Keep independent media alive. Become a Scroll member today!
Our journalism is for everyone. But you can get special privileges by buying an annual Scroll Membership. Sign up today!