9-million high-value deals minus PAN under I-T scanner

I-T department plans to initially issue 700,000 letters to individuals in this regard

Armed with information on about nine million high value transactions without permanent account numbers (PANs) over a span of eight years, the income-tax department plans to initially issue 700,000 letters to individuals in this regard, asking them to disclose all about their spending.

“The department has these details for the period 2009-10 to 2016-17,” the finance ministry stated on Thursday.

The department has scrutinised the annual information returns for high value transactions — cash deposits of over Rs 10 lakh in a savings bank account, sale/purchase of immovable property valued at Rs 30 lakh or more, etc — and many of these did not have a linked PAN. These returns are information received from third-party sources like banks, mutual funds and registrars about such high-value transactions. The department had, with the help of inhouse computer techniques, grouped such non-PAN transactions and identified 700,000 ‘high-risk clusters’, having around 1.4 million non-PAN transactions. It is to now issue letters to the parties in these transactions, asking them for their PAN number against these.

There are 250 million PAN holders but only 54.3 million taxpayers, as on the current assessment year.

This step comes amid the government’s offering a chance for tax evaders under a four-month voluntary income disclosure scheme, closing on September 30, to escape prosecution if they reveal what they had not till now, paying a little extra in return, of 45 per cent in three instalments by September 30, 2017. This comprises a tax rate of 30 per cent, beside a Krishi Kalyan Cess and penalty of 7.5 per cent each. Of the amount to be paid, a fourth needs to be made by November 30, another fourth by March 31 and the remaining half by September 30 next year.

For the convenience of people to whom letters will be issued, the department has developed a new functionality on the e-filing portal, wherein one may own up to transactions and provide a structured response. The parties can log in to their e-filing website and by quoting a unique transaction sequence number provided in the letter sent to them, can easily link their transaction with their PAN, the ministry said. To reduce interface with tax officials, the department has asked people who receive such letters to “cooperate” and use the departmental helpline to ask questions.

That apart, principal chief commissioners have been asked to scrutinise “non-filers” and those who have not given a response to the tax authorities about non-filing of returns.