On-the-spot surveys and verifications conducted by the Income Tax Department of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh revealed more than 2.5 lakh real estate transactions worth $A person familiar with the development said that 3.12 lakh crore rupees were either unreported in this district in the last year or were reported with wrong PAN details.
The numbers, which likely indicate so-called ‘black’ money, were significant in Gurugram, Chandigarh, Faridabad, Sonepat, Karnal and a few other districts, the people, who requested anonymity, added.
Section 285BA of the Income Tax Act requires reporting authorities including banks, sub-registration offices (SROs), non-banking financial companies, mutual funds, etc. to furnish Statement of Financial Transactions (SFTs) in respect of high value transactions, payment of interest and dividends and other relevant transactions undertaken by taxpayers, along with Permanent Account Number (PAN).
SROs are legally required to report details of all immovable property transactions exceeding $30 lakh. The information is then matched to income tax returns.
“The Directorate of Criminal Intelligence and Investigation, a unit within the IT department, carried out a total of 42 spot verification operations – mostly at tehsil offices – in the north-west region covering the states of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and the union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, Chandigarh and Ladakh in 2025-26. “The main purpose was to detect and address irregularities in reporting of high-value financial transactions by designated reporting authorities,” said an official in the department.
“Field verifications and data analysis of existing records revealed that SROs did not report at all or provided wrong PAN details for a large number of real estate transactions mentioned above. $He added: “The value of 30 thousand.”
Another person mentioned above, who is also in the department, said that the IT department detected “more than 2.50 lakh real estate transactions – many of which were registered at Tehsil offices in Gurugram, Faridabad, Sonepat, Chandigarh and several districts of Punjab – and the estimated value of these transactions is $3.12 million crores.”
It is learned that the IT department has launched a similar campaign in other parts of the country as well. Although the data was not collected centrally, officials hinted that such questionable transactions across India could be of value. $7.50 million crores.
“It is not known whether officers at the local regional offices were involved with taxpayers in all these cases, but such incomplete or erroneous reports render the data ineffective for tax verification purposes and significantly hamper the IT department’s ability to track high value transactions and ensure proper tax compliance,” the second officer added.
After disclosing this information, it is learned that the department has collaborated with SROs and other reporting authorities asking them to provide accurate and complete PAN information while recording real estate transactions and also reporting all high value transactions.
Fines have been imposed on several officials at SROs and further action may follow if they do not follow the rules, the people cited above said.
“It is rare to see one government department (income tax) fining another government department (SRO) for violating the central law. Although the fine is not huge, it sends a message to SROs across India to comply with the law,” said Ashish K Singh, Managing Partner, Capstone Legal.
