Kerala: Income Tax officials seek to vet cooperative banks

KOZHIKODE: While protests have spilled on to streets over the ‘deliberate attempt’ by the Union government to destroy the cooperative banking sector in the state by denying permission for cash transactions and exchange of old currency, the Income-Tax officials say that the RBI action is a fallout of the dubious image of these banks being banking dens where one can safely hide unaccounted money.   It is to be recalled that a tussle has been on between I-T department and cooperative banking sector backed by the CPM, for the last few years.  The I-T department had demanded details of account holders with more than Rs 5 lakh deposit in the banks which was duly denied by the banks saying that they have no such depositors.

Later, the Income-Tax department unearthed facts that all cooperative banks bury the cash of the rich in split accounts of Rs 50,000 each. An I-T official who preferred anonymity told this newspaper that if there is a person with Rs 2 crore black money, they would split it into 400 accounts of Rs 50,000 each. “I am telling this with concrete proof. That is why they are afraid of allowing us to verify the details of account holders,” he added. On the allegation of cooperative banking sector that the I-T department is acting soft against banking groups like Muthoot and ICICI banks, the official said that there is an automated system by which details of all accounts with more than Rs 10 lakh will reach to I-T department. Moreover, if any person draws an amount of Rs 10,000 as interest the details of the account holder and Pan card number reach the I-T wing. Most of the I-T officials contacted by DC opined that if the cooperative sector is clean they should allow the I-T department to verify all details of customers.    

“Instead they operate like Swiss Banks without abiding by the law of the country,” said another official, adding that while depositors of all other banks whether scheduled or nationalized, pay I-T on interest for deposits, the depositors of cooperative sector are a privileged class who are free from paying any interest. On denial of cash exchange facility to coop banks the officials said, “We have clear  information that many cooperative banks in the state had kept open throughout night on November 8 after the announcement of demonetisation where black money of affluent have been dumped. “Now they claim that the crores dumped belongs to the ‘poor’,” said the official.