Note ban goof-up? I-T dept names even small depositors

NEW DELHI: Are you among those whose name is on the income tax website despite depositing only small amount of currency during the demonetisation drive? There is no need to panic as the government is describing the data related to 18 lakh people, many of whom have received SMSes and emails, as an exercise to "reconcile" the data received from banks that is suspected of being related to black money.

Several individuals, whose names are among those with deposits of Rs 5 lakh or more, are now realising that the data is incorrect and have approached tax authorities to fix the problem. The names — along with another set containing deposits of Rs 3-5 lakh — were put up at the end of the month and had been put up on the website and individuals and entities had 10 days to respond.

The tax department had threatened to issue notices if there was no response by Friday. These deposits added up to nearly Rs 4.2 lakh crore.

"It is not a tax notice. We are only trying to confirm that the information that has been shared by the banks is authentic. Everyone is requested to respond, and if the information is not correct, no one will be chased or hounded," a senior government official said.

Sources said that some of the depositors have even got back to the department saying that they had more money than what has been captured in the data shared by banks.

CBDT chairman Sushil Chandra had earlier said that only those accounts where the data did not match with tax returns will be probed.