14,000 properties of Rs 1 crore each under I-T scanner

In a statement detailing the impact of demonetisation, it said ‘Operation Clean Money’ was launched on January 31 to analyse data of persons who deposited large sums of cash post note-ban, with no previous matching returns of income.

While Rs 15,496 crore was admitted as undisclosed income, surveys resulted in seizure of Rs 13,920 crore. The ITD statement follows the government defending demonetisation after the RBI data showed on Wednesday that almost all the Rs 15.44 lakh crore junked currency notes were returned to the banking system.

In the first phase of Operation Clean Money exercise, data analytics was used to identify 18 lakh suspect cases where cash transactions did not appear to be in line with the tax profile of depositors, ITD said. Online verification was done in a record time of four weeks, it said.

Using data analytics, 13.33 lakh accounts of 9.72 lakh persons with unusual cash deposits of around Rs 2.89 lakh crore was identified and response sought.

The Operation Clean money has since moved into the next phase that “includes enforcement actions in high risk cases, taxpayer engagement through a dedicated website in medium risk cases and close monitoring in low risk cases.“The exercise has also unearthed large number of persons and clusters having suspect transactions. These include about 14,000 properties of more than Rs 1 crore each where persons have not even filed Income Tax Returns. “The investigations are in progress,” the statement said.

The high, medium and low risk cases have been identified through the use of advanced data analytics, including integration of data sources, relationship clustering and fund tracking.