Operation Clean Money: I-T dept scans 1 crore accounts, 18 lakh people to be questioned

In a bid to clamp down on unaccounted money funnelled into bank accounts post demonetization, the tax department has scrutinised and matched as many as 1-crore accounts and asked 18 lakh people to explain the source of fund.

The tax department has run big data analytics through more than 1-crore accounts in its data bank and done matching with the taxpayer profile of the holder, a top source said.

As per I-T records, there are 3.65 crore individuals who filed income tax returns. Besides, there are over 7 lakh companies, 9.40 lakh Hindu Undivided Families (HUFs) and 9.18 lakh firms who filed ITRs during Assessment Year 2014-15.

Also, over 25 crore zero-balance Jan Dhan accounts were opened as part of the financial inclusion drive.

Sources said I-T department is scrutinising all categories of accounts and will send out more SMS/emails for suspicious deposits under 'Operation Clean Money'.

"We have initially matched 1-crore accounts with the profile in our database and identified 18 lakh people with suspicious deposits of over Rs 5 lakh. We will expand the scope of data analytics further and match the profiles with our data base," the source told