Demonetisation: Opened a bank account in last one month? The govt is watching

Bank accounts and lockers, which have been opened in the last one month, will be monitored closely to check transaction patterns and rule out any discrepancy.

Both savings and current accounts of first timers, or otherwise, will be scrutinised. Besides, transactions and transfers of money from one account to another will also come under the scanner.

“There could be a possibility that bank accounts have been opened in the wake of the demonetisation exercise with the main intention of parking unaccounted cash... we will monitor transactions and any discrepancy or suspicious deposits will be reported to the higher authorities and agencies,” a senior government official, who did not wish to be identified, told HT.

The income-tax department has already recovered stashes of unaccounted cash from thousands of people after the government announced its decision to stop the circulation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes on November 8 .

On Thursday, taxmen had unearthed Rs 10.80 crore of cash, of which R8.8 crore was in new currency notes.

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Sushil Chandra, chairman, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), said the department was getting “real time information.”

“We are conducting searches and seizures based on solid information and we have increased our surveillance,” he said.

Deposits, which have come into savings accounts opened under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, are also being scrutinised more thoroughly to curb money-laundering activities , a bank official said. Investigations undertaken by the tax department have already revealed suspicious deposits in some Jan Dhan accounts.

The finance ministry had earlier said that an undisclosed amount of Rs 1.64 crore has been deposited by individuals, who have never filed income-tax returns. The majority of the depositors were from Midnapore in Kolkata, Ara in Bihar, Kochi and Varanasi.

The government, meanwhile, has made it mandatory to quote the permanent account number for opening bank accounts.

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