Income Tax Department Identifies Over Rs 900 Crore Fake Refund Claims in ITR Using AI
The Income Tax Department has identified a huge number of Income Tax Returns (ITRs) in which fake refunds have been claimed. As of now, more than 2 lakh returns have been identified as suspicious, where refunds of over Rs 900 Crore have been fraudulently claimed. This is just an estimation, and the real amount may be larger than this, as the investigation is still ongoing.
The department is using the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tools to find cases where the taxpayers have submitted fake receipts of school fees, political party donations and Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO). The AI analyses whether the transaction has been done or not.
The Taxpayer’s PAN and the donation receipt’s PAN card number are examined to know if the funds were actually deposited into the relevant institution or not. Using this method, the Income Tax Department isolated files of such cases and investigated the documents, where it found several irregularities at many levels in the ITR filing process.
Due to this detailed investigation into refund cases, many refunds have been delayed. The income tax department is sending notices in cases where fake claims have been made to get refunds while evading taxes. If the irregularity in the ITR is unintentional, then an opportunity is given to file a revised return. But if fake claims have been made intentionally, the department will impose a fine after issuing the notices.
