Income Tax department to launch Project Insight to curb black money: Govt

NEW DELHI: The Income Tax department will implement 'Project Insight' from next year which will monitor high value transactions, with a view to curbing the circulation of black money, the Finance Ministry said today.

'Project Insight' has been initiated by the Department for data mining, collection, collation and processing of such information for effective risk management with a view to widening and deepening tax base, Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.

"This will enhance the department's ability to monitor the flow of funds and will provide an audit trail of high value transactions and curb circulation of black money," Sinha said.

'Project Insight' will be implemented in phased manner during the period 2016-2018, he added.

Sinha said Permanent Account Number (PAN) being the unique identifier is used by the Income Tax department to link and analyse various transactions relating to the tax payers.

"The income tax law mandates quoting of PAN for specified transactions above a threshold including purchase of immovable and movable property, bank deposits, financial assets," he said.