Similarly, the limit on cash deposits has also been enhanced to Rs 1 lakh from the earlier 50,000. This means that banks will have to furnish information on cash deposits aggregating Rs 1 lakh or more.

Officials said that the decision to revise the ceiling for collection of information by the CIB follows representations made by the Indian Banks Association (IBA).

According to them, the CIB has been instructed not to collect information on time deposits from banks since these are, in any case, available in the TDS returns filed by banks

Only a few months ago, the I-T department raised the threshold calling for information from co-operative societies on deposits and investments made in bonds from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh.

The department has powers under the Income-Tax Act to call for information from the registrar of immovable property, RTOs, finance companies, travel agents, brokers, stock exchanges, mutual funds, and so on.

Parallelly, the income tax rules also prescribe the transactions for which every person has to quote his permanent account number (PAN). This includes payment in cash for purchase of a bank draft or pay orders or bankers cheques from a banking company for an amount exceeding Rs 50,000.

Similarly, quoting of PAN is mandatory for deposit in cash aggregating Rs 50,000 or more with a banking company. There are no changes in these rules as of now. However, from April 1, 2004, it would incumbent upon assesses who enter into any financial transaction with any other person to mandatorily file annual information returns.

The CBDT will soon prescribe the nature and value of transactions to be covered under annual information returns. The tax information network, launched on Wednesday, will receive annual information returns for digitisation.