The Income Tax Department is gearing up to prepare a 360-degree tax
profiling of individual tax payers in the country to keep a tab on tax
evasion and money laundering.
"Finance
Minister has given a go-ahead for integrated 360-degree mapping of
individual tax payers by utilising data collected from various sources
like annual information returns (AIRs) from banks, credit cards, mutual
funds, stock market and property registrars," a senior Finance Ministry
official said.
Only
yesterday, Finance Minister P Chidambaram had said that in the meeting
of chief income tax commissioners, decision has been taken for
integrated tax mapping. He, however, declined to give details about the
project.
Sources said
after a successful pilot project on integrated tax profiling in Delhi,
the I-T department also has plans to prepare a huge data bank that
would have all sorts of information on potential tax evading
individuals and corporate houses.
The
government has so far gathered information about Rs 60,00,000 crore
investment by tax payers through AIRs. Under the tax mapping, the
department plans to explore cases involving large scale tax evasion.
The
sources said the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) under the ministry
will also provide information about potential tax evaders, as it
collects and analyses information about financial transactions through
banks and other financial institutions.