The I-T department’s investigation revealed that deposits in the books of certain cooperative banks were in excess of the physical holding of the now-defunct 500 and Rs 1,000 rupees currency notes
New Delhi : In the series of midway changes in rules under the demonetisation drive, the government on Friday fired yet another salvo at the cooperative banks, banning them from taking deposits under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Scheme in force since December 17.
Nobody in the Finance Ministry was, however, ready to explain what happens to the deposits accepted by the cooperative banks in the past 35 days from December 17 to January 20.
A similar whimsical midway change was made four days after the demonetisation to stop acceptance of the scrapped money by the cooperative banks, leaving them with pileup of huge sums not accepted by the Reserve Bank of India or other banks.
The scheme was brought in on December 16, requiring those declaring undisclosed income by way of depositing the scrapped notes to pay 50% as tax and deposit another 25% in the 4-year lock-in bonds under the scheme. The original notification allowed any banking company to accept the deposits from December 17 to March 31. However, it stands amended to exclude the cooperative banks.
PTI ADDS: Meanwhile, after junking old 500 and 1,000 rupee notes, the Centre had come up with an amnesty scheme for holders of unaccounted cash by asking them to pay 50 per cent tax and parking one-fourth of it in a no-interest bearing four-year deposit.
This deposit could be made with any banks. But now cooperative banks have been barred from accepting such deposits. The PMGKY scheme is open till March 31. “Application for the deposit in the form of Bonds Ledger Account shall be received by any banking company, other than Co-operative Banks, to which the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, applies,” the government said while amending the notification for Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY), 2016.
Under the scheme, holders of unaccounted cash willing to avail the offer will have to first pay the tax amount and then fill up a challan form provided by the bank for availing the four-year deposit scheme.
The authorised banks have to electronically furnish the details of deposit to the Revenue Department on the next working day to enable information verification of the deposit before accepting the declaration under the PMGKY.
Full confidentiality of the data would be ensured by the RBI and authorised banks.
The amendment to the notification comes after the I-T department spotted irregularities in deposits of cooperative banks following demonetisation. The the I-T department’s investigation revealed that deposits in the books of certain cooperative banks were in excess of the physical holding of the now-defunct 500 and Rs 1,000 rupees currency notes.
After the shock demonetisation of 500 and 1,000 rupee notes on November 8, the government had asked holders of such currency bills to deposit them in bank accounts by December 30. An estimated Rs 15.44 lakh crore worth such high denomination notes were in circulation.
While the RBI has not made it public the exact amount of junked notes that were deposited, there are reports that close to Rs 15 lakh crore has already come back.The tax department, in order to crack down on money laundering, has asked banks to report deposits in any account aggregating Rs 10 lakh in a year, as well as cash payments of Rs 1 lakh or more on credit card bills.
