Income Tax dept probing property deals worth ₹3.12 lakh crore

By Bricksnwall | 2026-04-24

The figures were huge in Gurugram, Chandigarh, Faridabad, Sonepat, Karnal and some other areas, and are likely to be what is termed as "black" money.

The Income Tax Department’s surveys and spot verifications in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh have uncovered over 2.5 lakh property transactions worth ₹3.12 lakh crore in this region in the last one year that were either not reported or reported with wrong PAN details, it is learnt.

The statistics, which are believed to indicate so-called “black” money , were considerable in Gurugram, Chandigarh, Faridabad, Sonepat, Karnal and a few other districts, the persons noted, requesting anonymity.

Section 285BA of the Income Tax Act mandates reporting entities such as banks, sub-registrar offices (SROs), NBFCs, mutual funds and others to submit Statement of Financial Transactions (SFTs) in relation to high-value transactions, payment of interest, dividend and other related transactions undertaken by taxpayers in addition to their Permanent Account Number (PAN).

SROs are legally obliged to record all transactions of immovable property above ₹30 lakh. The information is then compared against income tax returns.

In the north-west region, the directorate of intelligence and criminal investigation, an IT department unit, conducted total 42 spot verifications, mostly at the Tehsil offices, in the states of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh and union territories of J&K, Chandigarh and Ladakh, in 2025-26. The major goal was to find and correct errors in the reporting of high-value financial transactions by designated Reporting Authorities,” said one of the persons, an officer in the department.

Field verification and analysis of existing record data indicated that SROs failed to disclose or gave incorrect PAN details for a considerable proportion of property transactions above ₹30 lakh in value,” he added.

Another person cited above, also in the department, said, “The IT department found ‘over 2.50 lakh such property transactions — many of them at Tehsil offices in Gurugram, Faridabad, Sonepat, Chandigarh, several districts of Punjab — and the estimated value of these transactions is ₹3.12 lakh crore’.

The IT department is understood to have initiated a similar effort in other sections of the country as well. Such dubious transactions across India may have been valued over ₹7.50 lakh crore, officials said, though the data has not been collated centrally.

It is not known whether officers in SROs are involved with taxpayers in all of these cases, but incomplete or erroneous reporting such as this renders the data useless for the purposes of tax verification and greatly hampers the IT department’s ability to track high-value transactions and ensure appropriate tax compliance,” the second officer added.

After the disclosures, the department is reported to have contacted SROs and other reporting bodies and asked them to furnish correct and complete PAN information while registering property transactions and also alert it about any high-value purchases.

Several officers in SROs have been fined, the persons above indicated, with further possible punishment if they don’t obey the guidelines.

Ashish K Singh, managing partner at Capstone Legal said: “It is rare to see one government department (Income Tax) imposing a fine on another government department (SRO) for a violation of a Central Act. “While the fine is not a heavy one, it sends a message to SROs across India to comply with the law.”

Source: Hindustan Times