The department has been sending notices in instances where the deposits are of ₹1 crore or more, officials told ET.
The Centre has asked post offices to re-initiate the know-your-customer (KYC) process for all existing accounts with deposits of ₹10 lakh and more. Based on the information, these accounts will be tagged low risk, high risk, and very high risk.
“We have detected many benami cases where deposits were made above ₹50 lakh and no return was filed and on further investigation, documents were traced to people who cannot have such income,” a senior official told ET. “So far, we have sent about 150 notices where deposits are above ₹1 crore or higher.”
The number of such instances is much higher than this and more notices are going to be issued, the person said. Data analytics is helping the department identify such cases.
Misuse by NRIs, HNIs
The official cited above said that compliance norms are simpler for small saving schemes, keeping in mind difficulties faced by the lower and middle-income groups. But this has been misused by some non-resident Indians (NRIs), high net-worth individuals (HNIs), and even some trusts, the person said.
Currently, NRIs and Hindu Undivided Families (HUFs) are not allowed to invest in small savings schemes.
In a May 25 master circular, the Department of Posts (DoP) asked post offices to flag and freeze accounts if customers don’t comply with KYC requirements.
Tightened KYC
The official said such evasion will be difficult going ahead as the Centre recently made reporting norms more stringent for all investments in post offices under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) rules.
For fresh deposits of ₹10 lakh and above, under the tightened norms, proof of source of income, permanent account number (PAN), Aadhaar, and other relevant KYC documents have to be submitted.
Additionally, through the May 25 master circular, the DoP mandated that all deposits of ₹10 lakh and above in post office schemes and all accounts related to politically exposed persons (PEPs) residing outside India will fall under high-risk category.
ET has seen a copy of the circular.
The KYC process will need to be completed every two years in the case of these account holders. Post offices have to categorise customers based on risk parameters at the time of account opening itself.
However, the official cited above said that post offices have been told not to hound customers.
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