RAIPUR: To tighten the noose on black money hoarders and ensure proper implementation of the Income Tax department's ambitious scheme Operation Clean Money (OCM) in Chhattisgarh, Principal Chief Commissioner of Income Tax (CCIT) PK Dash chaired a meeting with Chhattisgarh 's I-T Chief Commissioner SSS B Ray and Principal Commissioner IT Raipur Ajit Korde.During the meeting, Dash directed all the officers to strongly focus on tax recovery campaign ( Aayakar Sangrahan Abhiyan ) and taxpayer base augmentation campaign ( Aayakar Vistaaran Abhiyaan ). Also, emphasis was laid on the Operation Clean Money (OCM) data available with the department. He said that it is difficult for the people to escape OCM as all types of data, including, bank deposits, property transactions, loans from shell companies are available with the department. There is still time as return can be modified and filed before March 31, 2018.Dash also said that under Operation Clean Money till now, 5,190 notices were sent by email to persons who have deposited cash more than the prescribed limit. Out of them, 3,769 persons have replied to the notices. They have declared their source of income and the department is verifying their claims. If found unsatisfactory, further investigations will be carried out. There are 1,416 people, who have not replied to the notices and legal action is being taken against them. Efforts are also being taken to trace some people through their KYC date from banks. Out of these, 20 assessees are not traceable. However, efforts are being taken to check if Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act can be invoked in such cases. He has urged officers to deal with such people with an iron fist.Principal Chief Commissioner appreciated the 24 I-T surveys conducted in Chhattisgarh since January 1, 2018. In all these surveys, a total of Rs 30 crore of undisclosed income was surrendered, out of which Rs 2 crore of tax has already been collected. He stated that undisclosed income of more than Rs 1 crore was surrendered from Dhamtari, Aarang, Saraipali, Basna and Raigarh , including the state capital Raipur.He also directed his officers to keep a vigil on each and every activity of all businessmen.The tax recovery officers of the department will be carrying out special campaign during February and March 2018 for tax recovery. These tax recovery officers have been given special monthly targets of property attachments and they can proceed immediately with the auction of the attached property. During review meeting, Principal CCIT also reviewed development on tax payer base augmentation. He was apprised by the senior officers of the department that during the current financial year, the target is to include 1.87 lakh new tax payers for filling return, out of which 7700 assesses are already on board. Income tax teams are checking records of those persons, whose TDS is deducted, but they are not filling return and accordingly proceeding against them as per law.Chhattisgarh crossed national average of tax collection, as during this fiscal, income tax department in Chhattisgarh has recorded growth rate of 50.38% in tax collection in comparison to last fiscal.

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