IT dept conducts survey at Aranthangi co-operative town bank

CHENNAI: The intelligence and criminal investigation wing of the income tax department is carrying out a survey at the Aranthangi Cooperative town bank on Thursday as the bank was not sending details of the interest paid to the customers for the four years.

The survey by the Intelligence and Criminal Investigation wing is necessitated because the ATG Co-operative Town Bank is not sending details about the interest paid to the customers to the Income-tax Department for the past four years.

It was suspected that the Cooperative Bank was not filing certain other specified transactions with the income-tax department, which it is expected to file as per law.

Further, even in cases where the specified transactions were reported, the Co-operative Town Bank has reported certain transactions with defects.

Earlier notice issued to rectify the defects was not complied by the bank.

According to the Income-tax Act and Rules, financial institutions including cooperative banks are statutorily obliged to file details of cash deposits by the members/customers in current/savings accounts above certain threshold limits, time/fixed deposits of above Rs.10 lakhs held by the members/customers and any amount of interest paid to their members/customers in the form of statement of financial transactions.

The non-adherence to the statutory duty on the part of the cooperative bank as a reporting entity is affecting the functioning of the Income-tax department, as the information about the specified financial transactions so gathered is further analyzed and used to assess the taxability in the hands of the individual taxpayers, officials noted.