10 state cooperative banks under Income Tax scanner for Rs 467 crore old note deposits

Ten district central cooperative banks (DCCBs), which had exchanged Rs 467 crore demonetised notes with the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, and a Tamil Nadu-based cooperative bank, has been pulledup by Income Tax department for irregularities in exchange of old demonetised notes. It has been reported that many villagers account were used to deposit old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 denominations.

“We were aware of many village headmen using farmers’ bank accounts to deposit old notes. Before getting down to action, we waited for the cooperative banks to exchange the old notes.Our officials have now started checking the accounts of the 10 DCCBs,” a senior I-T official told.

According to NABARD officials, as per RBI instructions, they checked only the ‘know your consumer’ (KYC) documents of people who had deposited demonetised currencies in their accounts.

“Our mandate was not to check the source of money deposited in those accounts. Except for a few accounts, for which KYCs were not proper, we did not have reasons to suspect any transaction,” said a senior Nabard official.