Govt. of India and Finance Ministry is bringing in a new legislation, which will restrict the number of bank accounts which can be opened. There will be two type categories for bank users now: Businesses such as manufacturing,
processing and other business operations wherein the customer is required to make multiple payments, daily.
processing and other business operations wherein the customer is required to make multiple payments, daily.
These can be exempted from this rule, but still, they will be report and inform the Govt about every bank account.
The other type of category will be professionals, salaried employees, and general entrepreneurs, who will not be allowed to open multiple bank accounts.
As per the nw rules, Govt. will decide how many bank accounts can they open at a time.
The Reason Behind This New Rule
Recently, a person in Ghaziabad was found to have 87 bank accounts with Oriental Bank of Commerce and Axis Bank. Rs 380 crore was allegedly laundered via these multiple bank accounts, and this shocked the tax authorities.
This case prompted the Income Tax Department to come up with regulation and rules related with opening of bank accounts by a single person.
It has been found that some people open multiple bank accounts in different cities, in different banks, and this will be stopped.
Talks on on to create a big database of all bank accounts being operated by bank customers, and there will be audit as to why multiple bank accounts are actually needed.
The official notes circulated on this issue said, “It is expected that every branch of a bank will be providing details of accounts with the tax authorities including Goods and Services Tax (GST) officials so that database of accounts opened in different parts of the country by any particular person can be verified. If there are any discrepancies, further probe can be initiated by the authorities concerned,”
Some other rules may also come into force, such as, if a person has a current account in a bank, then he may not be allowed to open another current account, in another bank.
An NoC or No Objection Certificate can be also asked to be produced in such instances.
