Long road for income tax department in 2018

Sources say the govt has directed the I-T department to increase collections by an additional Rs 20,000 crore to make good the GST shortfall

The year 2018 will be challenging for the income tax (I-T) department as it grapples to establish cases of untaxed cash deposits made during demonetisation, estimated at about Rs 3 lakh crore.

The Lok Sabha elections of 2019 are expected to put more pressure on the taxman because eradicating black money is likely to be a key poll plank of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The onus of the clean-up exercise seems to have been put on the I-T department, also because the government is reeling from the pressure of the spiralling fiscal deficit, which crossed the year’s Budget estimate in