I-T dept may issue non-statutory letters

The Income Tax (I-T) department is “verifying” over Rs 4.5 lakh crore of suspicious deposits made by 18 lakh people post note ban and will send ‘non-statutory’ letters to those who have not responded to its SMS and email queries seeking explanation.

Big Data analysis by the department has revealed that deposits of over Rs 2 lakh totalling Rs 10 lakh crore were made in about 1 crore bank accounts in the 50-day window after demonetisation was announced.

Of these, it picked up 18 lakh deposits of over Rs 5 lakh each for examination as they prima facie looked suspicious, an official said. So far, the department has received replies from over 7 lakh people, most of whom accepted making such deposits.