About 60% Taxpayers Identified Under Operation Clean Money Filed Returns

About 60 percent of taxpayers identified under ‘Operation Clean Money' have filed their tax returns, Central Board of Direct Taxes Chairman Sushil Chandra told BloombergQuint.

“For individual taxpayers we have seen a growth of 23 percent…In overall returns filed we have seen a growth of 20 percent,” Chandra said, attributing it to the operation aimed at detecting black money generation post demonetisation.

In the first phase of Operation Clean Money, CBDT had identified 18 lakh individuals who made deposits that did not match with their taxpayer profile, and asked them respond on the taxman's portal. Over 9.72 lakh individuals had responded, providing information on 13.33 lakh accounts involving cash deposits of around Rs 2.89 lakh crore, according to a press release issued by Ministry of Finance. In its second phase, the taxman identified 5.56 lakh new individuals who made suspicious deposits, the ministry said in a separate release.

• The exercise has increased the government's net revenue by 15.2 percent, Chandra said.
• Advance tax paid by individuals who deposited cash during demonetisation increased by 30 percent, he added.
• Rs 1.77 lakh crore has been received as advance tax as on September 30, 2017, a growth of 11.5 percent from the corresponding period of last year, according to a release by CBDT.

CBDT has sent notices to those who have still not filed their returns and appropriate action will be taken, Chandra said.

Meeting Tax Collection Target

Chandra is hopeful of achieving the government's tax collection target of Rs 9.80 lakh for FY18, Chandra said. Provisional net direct tax rose 15 percent to Rs 4.39 lakh crore as on Oct. 31, 2017. This was 44.8 percent of the budgeted direct tax collection target.

The income tax department has attached 620 properties worth Rs 1,800 crore as of now, Chandra added.