Over 5.27 lakh taxpayers respond to IT department's 'Operation Clean Money '

Within 13 days of launching, the Income Tax Department's 'Operation Clean Money ' has recorded responses from over 5.27 lakh taxpayers.

On January 31, the IT department initiated the ‘Operation Clean Money’ for the e-verification of large cash deposits made during the 50-day period after Prime Minister Narendra Modi de-legalised the use of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes - ie from November 9 to December 30, 2016.

As per Ministry of Finance, the e-portal saw an overwhelming response  from more than 5.27 lakh taxpayers till February 12, 2017.

The government said that these taxpayers confirmed having 7.41 lakh accounts where the cash deposit amount has been confirmed in more than 99.5% accounts.

The department said that taxpayers had increased cash deposits in nearly 90,000 accounts and also provided details of additional 25,000 bank accounts in which cash was deposited. 

"The explanation of cash deposit submitted by the taxpayer is being analysed in the context of nature of business and business profile in the earlier returns of the taxpayer," said the Ministry of Finance. 

While announcing 'Operation Clean Money', the ministry had sent out e-mails and SMSes to 18 lakh taxpayers for submitting online response on the e-filing portal.

Meanwhile, this exercise has also identified around 4.84 lakh taxpayers that have not registered with the e-filing portal yet. The government has asked these taxpayers to register immediately. 

The Ministry said that it had extended the last date for submission to February, 15. It had also issued a detailed Frequently Asked Question (FAQs) to assist the taxpayers in submitting their response. 

The FinMin warned that failure to adhere to the extended deadline could bring about enforcement action under the Income-tax Act and other applicable laws.