"We have identified 23 lakh people who have invested their money, but have not filed returns. We will be sending out letters to them asking them details of their tax returns," an official said. The I-T department is spreading its net over people who conducted high-value transactions in 2010-11 and 2011-12. The government is trying to meet its revenue collection target for this financial year.

"We will try to recover taxes from the bigger defaulters by March. We will be sending details about the non-filers and stop-filers to the respective assessing officers," the official added. The tax department has already issued letters in 2.45 lakh cases.

The Finance Ministry is also developing a module on the e-filing portal that will provide individual taxpayers details of returns not filed, ITR-V not submitted and demands not paid, among others, as a step toward greater transparency.

The government plans to collect over Rs 6.68 lakh crore from direct taxes in this financial year, up 18 per cent from Rs 5.65 lakh crore in 2012-13.

PTI