Now On Record: 14-Times High Generation Of Suspicious Transaction Reports Linked To Tax Crimes Due To Demonetisation

According to the latest FIU report, demonetisation led to the largest-ever generation of over 14 lakh suspicious transaction reports (STRs), a whopping 1,400 per cent jump over the past, reports Economic Times (ET).

Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU)-India is an independent body that directly reports to the Economic Intelligence Council (EIC) headed by the Finance Minister. It is India’s central national agency responsible for receiving, processing, analysing and disseminating information relating to suspect financial transactions.

“During the year (2017-18), reporting entities (banks and other financial institutions) continued to examine transactions during demonetisation and as a consequence over 14 lakh STRs were received by FIU-IND,” noted the report which also compiled data regarding fake currency deposits for the year 2017-18.

STRs are created when a transaction shows that it has been made in circumstances of unusual or unjustified complexity or appears to have no economic rationale or bona fide purpose. Also, those transactions that raise a reasonable ground of suspicion that it may have been involved in terrorist financial also generate STRs.

"This increase is almost 3 times than the STRs received in the last year (2016-17) and 14 times than the STRs received prior to demonetisation," the agency's director Pankaj Kumar Mishra.

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Recently the income tax department had asked its officials to use ‘best judgement’ assessment on 87,000 taxpayers who deposited large amounts of money into their bank accounts during demonetisation but refused to respond to the queries made by the department on the sources of fund.

Also Read: Demonetisation: One Of The Greatest Economic Experiments In Modern Times