Gujarat election 2017: Illegal flow of money via digital platform difficult to probe, feel I-T officials

It would be a catch-22 situation for the Income Tax (I-T) department in Gujarat, if any political candidate violates the digital mode of payment and use his illegal money during Gujarat election, as the investigation wing has "no immediate mechanism" to track these suspicious payments and take action.

Sources within the I-T department in Gujarat confirmed to Indiatoday.in that "if there is a situation, where a political party or an election candidate misuses the digital platform - such as e-wallet or banking platform like RTGS (with support of angadias) - for the movement of illegal money or to bribe their voters, the department has no immediate mechanism to catch them".

Angadias, the unofficial courier-cum-banking service providers in Gujarat, has adopted the Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) transactions as its new strategy for the transaction of illegal money.

DIFFICULTIES BEFORE I-T DEPARTMENT OFFICIALS

RTGS would be widely used in Gujarat election because it would be very difficult for an investigative agency to check the source of money and the beneficiaries in a very short span of time.

"By the time taxmen would starting getting suspicious transaction reports (STRs) from the banks on RTGS transactions, the new government would be formed in Gujarat," the sources within the department said.

RTGS stands for real time gross settlement, which means that it enables money to move from one bank to another on a real time and gross basis.

Real time means the beneficiary bank receives the instructions for fund transfer immediately and gross means that it is not bunched with any other transaction and settlements of funds transfer instructions happen individually.

In addition, further challenges are digital payments. If insiders are to be believed, e-wallets of banks would get widely misused by potential candidates to bribe the voters.

"In Gujarat election, digital mode of payments would be misused. If there are four voters in a family and a payment of Rs 10,000 is to be made, a candidate would use e-wallet for crediting Rs 2,500 in each pocket," an insider said.

Ironically, the I-T officials also admitted that if such digital payments of suspicious nature take place during the election, it would be "almost impossible" for them to track it. The department does not rule out the involvement of bankers in such activities, which makes the monitoring more difficult for the taxmen.

EFFORTS TO CHECK ILLEGAL TRANSACTIONS

"The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) is working on the new proposal to probe digital payments, but that would take time to get implemented. Hence, as of now there is no mechanism before I-T department," an official said.

At present, 33 surveillance teams, each consisting of six to seven officials, have been formed by the I-T department in Gujarat to monitor the election expenditure. Dedicated teams of taxmen have been positioned at all ten domestic airports in the state to monitor the flow of cash money and bullion by traders and angadias.

Last week, on the specific tip-off of the I-T department, the air intelligence unit (AIU) of Rajkot Customs seized 25 kg gold and 5 kg of silver at Rajkot Airport.

Similarly, on Wednesday, the department seized about 70 kg silver near Ahmedabad, which is now getting probed by both the I-T department and the state police. Two persons have been detained with suspicious bills.

So Sorry: How political war is fought through social media in Gujarat polls