The Investigation Wing of the Income Tax Department has detected thousands of non-PAN (Permanent Account Number) accounts of different categories in several branches of Jammu and Kashmir Bank with transactions of lakhs of crores of rupees with the sole objective of keeping huge quantum of money outside the purview of taxation.
Reliable sources said that the sleuths of Investigation Wing of the Income Tax Department have carried out detailed analysis of the data of different branches of Jammu and Kashmir Bank in Srinagar and during this exercise significant violations have come to the fore.
“Thousands of accounts of different categories have not been linked with PAN and only Form 60 has been filed. But transactions of lakhs of rupees per financial year have been carried out from these accounts. Moreover, these accounts are having credit of lakhs of crores of rupees”, sources informed.
They further said, “from the data furnished for the period of Financial Year 2021-22 to Financial Year 2023-24 by the Jammu and Kashmir Bank, Government-Linked Accounts, Current Accounts, Loan Accounts etc have been separated in order to trace private bank accounts of parties who have not linked their PANs to their bank accounts with enormous credits”, adding “the cases in which source of funds needs further detailed investigation have been categorized”.
“In view of staggering number of non-PAN bank accounts having huge quantum of transactions, the details of accounts in which there are credits of Rs 50 lakh or more have been identified”, sources said while disclosing that number of Government Linked Accounts, Current Accounts etc in which there is credit of more than Rs 50 lakh are more than 12,000. Likewise, private bank accounts in which there is credit of more than Rs 50 lakh are more than 10,000.
There are more than 7500 non-PAN Current Accounts with huge cumulative credits and of these accounts large number are having credits of Rs 50 lakh or more in a financial year. Similarly, there are over one lakh non-PAN Saving Accounts having enormous credits and around 10000 such accounts are having credits of Rs 50 lakh or more in a financial year.
“There is credit of crores of rupees in General Small Accounts and NRE/NRO Saving Bank Accounts and NRE Current Account”, sources further informed, adding “in around 1900 Basic Savings accounts there is huge credit during the financial year 2021-22 to 2023-24. Also there are more than 100 accounts with credits of more than Rs 50 lakh”.
According to the sources, findings of the Investigation Wing of the Income Tax Department will be shared with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for initiating appropriate action against the Jammu and Kashmir Bank in view of these significant violations.
“In view of analysis of top cases conducted by the Income Tax Department, it becomes evident that huge quantum of money has been kept outside the purview of taxation and this aspect is required to be investigated into length for initiating necessary action under the Income Tax Act, 1961”, sources said, “the data of each account holder will be shared with the concerned Assessing Officers to initiate due verification under the relevant provisions of the Income Tax Act”.
It has also come to the notice of the Income Tax Department that crores of rupees are lying in certain accounts with regard to National Urban Livelihood Mission despite the fact that this is a scheme that aims to provide employment and financial inclusion to the urban poor in Jammu and Kashmir. (EXCELSIOR)
