Income tax department issues clarification regarding seeking information about unaccounted cash from hospitals accepting payment above Rs. 2 lakh in cash

Recently we had seen that a relaxation was provided by Income tax department to hospitals and other Covid-relief centres to accept cash above Rs. 2 lakh from one person for Covid treatment u/s 269ST of Income tax act.

Once such relaxation was provided, speculations were being made that Income tax shall use such information against the assessee making payment to hospitals as hospitals were required to collect all information from person making the payment and charge such assessee for unaccounted money.

However, CBDT had recently issued a clarification that no such enquiry will be made and CBDT has not issued any such directive and no circular has been issued to hospitals in this regard.

Statement issued by Income tax department in this regard are as under:

“The news article published in Business Standard @bsindia today, with the headline ‘IT goes after hospitals over unaccounted cash’ is unsubstantiated.

The Finance Ministry has not issued any directive to CBDT in this regard. Further, unlike as reported, the CBDT has not come out with any Circular where hospitals need to disclose the cash they receive to the IT Department.

Unlike, as alleged in the report, CBDT has acted to facilitate patients during this pandemic. Provisions of section 269ST of IT Act have been relaxed to allow cash payments of more than Rs. 2 lakh to hospitals for Covid treatment if the PAN or Aadhaar of the payer is provided”

To read the same on Income tax department twitter CLICK HERE.

Hence, Income tax department has clarified that all such speculations are baseless and no such enquiry will be made by the department on the persons making such payment.