Arun Jaitley launches online clean money portal
What's the story
In the latest development in the Centre's Operation Clean Money, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced a new online portal to investigate tax evaders. The portal, designed by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), will tally large cash deposits and/or purchases with declared incomes of individuals to identify potential tax evaders. The portal will allow individuals to provide explanations without physically visiting tax offices.
Phase I
Centre launches Operation Clean Money; suspects 9 lakh people
With cash deposits pouring in as a result of the demonetization, the Centre launched "Operation Clean Money" on 31st January 2017 with the aim of finding tax evaders. 17.92 lakh persons were contacted via SMS and email by the Income Tax Department regarding suspicious cash deposits post-demonetization. Out of that number, 9.46 lakh people responded with justifications while the rest were tagged as "doubtful".
Phase II
Phase II of Operation Clean Money gets underway
The Centre launched Phase II of Operation Clean Money on 14th April 2017. Of the 8.46 lakh people tagged as "doubtful", the Income Tax Department announced that it would investigate over 60,000 individuals including 1,300 "high risk persons". The investigations come in the face of Rs. 9,334 crore worth of undisclosed income detected by the Central Board of Direct Taxes between November and February.
Quote
Time of reckoning!
"It is time of reckoning for those who evade tax. We want to change habit from non-tax compliant to tax compliant," said Arun Jaitley in a statement.
Portal
How the portal will work
The portal will facilitate communication between individuals and tax authorities through their PAN numbers. Information relating to suspicious cases will be available on the online portal https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in under the e-filing section after log in. Data analytics will be used to determine the cases for verification which will be decided based on risk criteria. Unregistered tax payers are expected to register at the portal.