Providing details of deposits to I-T dept mandatory for all banks, post offices

Commercial banks, co-operative banks and post offices will have to provide information to the Income Tax department about cash deposits in the individual accounts.

Information on cash deposits in the individual accounts before and after the announcement of demonetisation on November 8 last year will be checked by the department, the office of the Principal Chief Commissioner of Income Tax (CCIT) West Bengal and Sikkim region informed on Monday.

All commercial banks in the country are Core Banking System (CBS) enabled and they have strong computer systems to monitor such things. The ability to capture illegal transaction of any type and get reports on them is not a daunting task. The concerned banks, co-operative banks and post offices will need to inform the competent authority.

“I am sure that the commercial banks, post offices, co-operative banks will report their data properly as required by the Income Tax department and other law enforcement departments,” said Vikram Sahay, Director of Income Tax (Intelligence and Criminal Investigation), Kolkata.

A recent amendment was brought into Income Tax Rules which makes providing information to the I-T department mandatory for commercial banks, co-operative banks and post offices.

Meanwhile, the regional office of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said that co-operative banks would have some problems to provide information to I-T department. “I am not sure about co-operative banks. Many co-operative banks are still out of the computerised network. Some of these do not have a robust computer system working in their office. They may perhaps face some issues,” said RBI Deputy General Manager Manish Parasar.

Additional Director I-T department Priyabrata Pramanik said that statement of financial transactions should be reported by banks, co-operative banks and post offices with PANs or Form 60.