In a major financial crackdown, the Income Tax Department’s Intelligence and Criminal Investigation (I&CI) wing has uncovered suspicious transactions exceeding ₹1,500 crore, routed through 22,550 bank accounts in Nagpur. The investigation has linked these activities to three cooperative banks—two based in Nagpur and one from outside the city.
The inquiry revealed over 400 cases of deposits and withdrawals above ₹50 lakh each and around 150 cases involving fixed deposits exceeding ₹10 lakh. Alarmingly, more than 20,000 accounts earned annual interest above ₹2 lakh without any corresponding reporting to the tax authorities.
Modus Operandi:
While examining the cooperative banks’ financial records, officials found nearly ₹200 crore worth of transactions that were omitted from the Statement of Financial Transactions (SFT)—a mandatory disclosure through which banks must report high-value dealings to the Income Tax Department.
What the Law Requires
Under the Statement of Financial Transactions (SFT) regulations:
- SFT-3 mandates reporting of deposits or withdrawals exceeding ₹50 lakh from current accounts.
- SFT-4 requires reporting if total annual transactions in savings accounts exceed ₹10 lakh.
- SFT-5 covers fixed deposits above ₹10 lakh.
- SFT-16 mandates disclosure of annual interest payments exceeding ₹2 lakh.
Officials suspect that certain cooperative banks deliberately failed to comply with these mandatory norms, enabling large sums of money to circulate without oversight.
Depositors Under the Scanner
The Income Tax Department is now preparing to issue notices to individuals linked to these suspicious accounts. While cooperative banks are legally required to file SFT reports, cooperative societies are exempt, a loophole that may have been exploited to conceal funds.
Unreported Interest Raises Red Flags
Investigators also uncovered several cases where crores worth of interest payments were neither declared by banks nor reflected in beneficiaries’ income tax returns — heightening suspicions of widespread tax evasion.
Crackdown Likely to Expand Across Vidarbha
Sources suggest that similar probes may soon extend to other cooperative banks across the Vidarbha region. The findings mirror earlier investigations into property registration offices, indicating that black money circulation through cooperative institutions could be far more extensive than previously believed.
The revelations have created a stir in Nagpur’s financial and business circles as authorities prepare for what may become one of the largest coordinated clean-ups of cooperative banking operations in recent years.
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