Income Declaration Scheme shuts on Sept 30, but CBDT has not set collection or declaration target

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has not set any collection or declaration target under the income declaration scheme that closes on September 30. "There is no target for collection or declaration, but we are trying our best to communicate to tax evaders that it is their golden chance to evade action against them," Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) member Gopal Mukherjee said. "We have information about concealed transactions in our data warehouse and the number of them is 7.5 lakh. The tax department is issuing letters based on our intelligence information."

He was in Kolkata for promoting the scheme at the annual conference of Direct Taxes Professionals' Association. Under the Annual Information Returns (AIR), various types of high-value transactions are being reported to the Income Tax Department. These include reporting of cash deposits of Rs 10 lakh or more in a savings bank account, sale/purchase of immovable property valued at Rs 30 lakh or more and the like. Many of these transactions do not have PAN linked to them. The department has details of about 90 lakh such transactions for 2009-10 to 2016-17. Mukherjee said parties receiving the letters will be offered a 15-day window to respond to whether he owns or disowns the transaction.