The Finance Ministry has worked out modalities where banks will report a list names and permanent account numbers (PAN) of customers who earn less than Rs. 5000 interest. Many non-salaried people in India invest money in fixed deposits but do not report the interest earned as income for taxes. The Income Tax (IT) authorities made it a policy for banks to deduct taxes at source for accounts that earn more than Rs.5000 before distributing the money. However, as a workaround to taxation, many opened fixed deposits that earn less than this amount so they do not have to pay taxes. The latest move is to track those accounts and bring this into the tax net. A very small percentage of Indians pay direct taxes and instead use "black money" on the sly.

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