RAJ IAS ACADEMY 27th August, 2020 Page 1

RAJ MALHOTRA’S IAS ACADEMY, CHANDIGARH

PRELIMS BOOSTER 2
Electronic PPO in DigiLocker 2
Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar 2
Export Preparedness Index - 2020 3
Contingency Fund of RBI 4
INS Viraat 4
AUDFs01 5
MCQs 5
EDITORIAL SIMPLIFIED 7
The marginalisation of justice in public discourse 8
Specified Financial Transactions 9
RAJ IAS ACADEMY 27th August, 2020 Page 2

PRELIMS BOOSTER
Electronic PPO in DigiLocker
Department of Pension and Pensioner’s Welfare (DoPPW) has decided to integrate the electronic
Pension Payment Order (e-PPO) generated through PFMS application of CGA (Controller
General of Accounts), with DigiLocker, in order to enhance ease of living of central government
civil pensioners.

Details -
• This system will enable any Pensioner to obtain an instant print-out of the latest copy of
their PPO, from their Digi Locker account.

• This initiative will create a permanent record of their respective PPO in their Digi Locker
and at the same time eliminate delays in reaching the PPO to new Pensioners, as well as the
necessity of handing over a physical copy.

• This was a target set to be accomplished for Civil Ministries by 2021-22, which the Department
completed ahead of time in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.

• This facility has been created with ‘Bhavishya’ software, which is a single window platform for
Pensioners, right from the start of their Pension processing, till the end of the process.
“Bhavishya” shall now provide an option to retiring employee, to link their Digi-locker account
with their “Bhavishya” account and obtain their e-PPO in a seamless manner.

What is DigiLocker?
• DigiLocker is a platform for issuance and verification of documents & certificates in a
digital way, thus eliminating the use of physical documents.

• Indian citizens who sign up for a DigiLocker account get a dedicated cloud storage space that
is linked to their Aadhaar (UIDAI) number.

• Organisations that are registered with Digital Locker can push electronic copies of documents
and certificates (e.g. driving license, Voter ID, School certificates) directly into citizens lockers.

• Citizens can also upload scanned copies of their legacy documents in their accounts. These
legacy documents can be electronically signed using the eSign facility.

Benefits of ‘DigiLocker’ -
The platform has the following benefits:

• Citizens can access their digital documents anytime, anywhere and share it online. This is
convenient and time saving.

• It reduces the administrative overhead of Government departments by minimising the use of

paper.

• Digital Locker makes it easier to validate the authenticity of documents as they are issued
directly by the registered issuers.

• Self-uploaded documents can be digitally signed using the eSign facility (which is similar to the
process of self-attestation).

Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar

Ministry of Women and Child Development has invited nominations for the Pradhan Mantri
Rashtriya Bal Puraskar - 2021 from children, individuals and institutions.

About ‘Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar’ -

• The Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskarwas instituted to felicitate meritorious children,
individuals and institutions of the country. These awards are given under two categories - Bal
Shakti Puraskar and Bal Kalyan Puraskar.

• While the Bal Shakti Puraskar aims to give recognition to children who have achieved
extraordinarily in various fields including innovation, scholastic, sports, art & culture, social
service and bravery, the Bal Kalyan Puraskar is given as recognition to Individuals and
RAJ IAS ACADEMY 27th August, 2020 Page 3
Institutions, who have made an outstanding contribution towards service for children in the
field of child development, child protection and child welfare.

• The Awards are given by the Hon'ble President of India in Darbar Hall, Rashtrapati Bhavan in
the week preceding Republic Day every year. Hon'ble Prime Minister of India also felicitates
the Awardees. The Awardees of Bal Shakti Puraskar also take part in Republic Day Parade on
the 26th of January on Rajpath, New Delhi.

Export Preparedness Index - 2020

NITI Aayog in partnership with the Institute of Competitiveness have released the Export
Preparedness Index (EPI) 2020.

What is EPI 2020?

• It is the first report to examine export preparedness and performance of Indian states, EPI
intends to identify challenges and opportunities; enhance the effectiveness of government
policies; and encourage a facilitative regulatory framework.

• The structure of the EPI includes 4 pillars – Policy; Business Ecosystem; Export Ecosystem;
Export Performance – and 11 sub-pillars – Export Promotion Policy; Institutional Framework;
Business Environment; Infrastructure; Transport Connectivity; Access to Finance; Export
Infrastructure; Trade Support; R&D Infrastructure; Export Diversification; and Growth
Orientation.

Observations in the report -

• What this edition of the EPI has shown is that most Indian states performed well on average
across the sub-pillars of Exports Diversification, Transport Connectivity, and
Infrastructure. The average score of Indian states in these three sub-pillars was above 50%.
However, Indian states should also focus on other key components in order to improve export
competitiveness.

• Overall, most of the Coastal States are the best performers. Gujarat, Maharashtra and
Tamil Nadu occupy the top three ranks, respectively. Six of eight coastal states feature in the
top ten rankings, indicating the presence of strong enabling and facilitating factors to promote
exports. In the landlocked states, Rajasthan has performed the best, followed by Telangana
and Haryana. Among the Himalayan states, Uttarakhand is the highest, followed by Tripura and
Himachal Pradesh. Across the Union Territories, Delhi has performed the best, followed by
Goa and Chandigarh.

• The report also highlights that export orientation and preparedness are not just restricted to
prosperous states. Even emerging states can undertake dynamic export policy measures, have
functioning promotional councils, and synchronise with national logistical plans to grow their
exports. Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand are two landlocked states that had initiated several
measures to promote exports.

• Many northeastern states under the Growth Orientation sub-pillar were able to export more
by focusing on their indigenous product baskets. This shows that a focused development
of such baskets (like spices) can drive exports on one hand and also improve farmer incomes
on the other in these states.

Challenges to export promotion in India -

Based on the findings of the report, export promotion in India faces three fundamental challenges:
intra-and inter-regional disparities in export infrastructure; poor trade support and growth
orientation among states; and poor R&D infrastructure to promote complex and unique
exports.

Way forward -
• There is a need to emphasise on key strategies to address these challenges: a joint
development of export infrastructure; strengthening industry-academia linkages; and
creating state-level engagements for economic diplomacy. These strategies could be
supported by revamped designs and standards for local products and by harnessing the
RAJ IAS ACADEMY 27th August, 2020 Page 4
innovating tendencies to provide new use cases for such products, with adequate support from
the Centre.

• To achieve the target of making India a developed economy by focusing on ‘Atmanirbhar

Bharat’, there is a need to increase exports from all the states and union territories. The EPI
provides invaluable insights on how states can attain this goal.

Contingency Fund of RBI

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has retained a whopping amount of Rs 73,615 crore within the
RBI by transferring it to the Contingency Fund (CF) of the central bank, thus leading to a
sharp fall in the transfer of surplus to the government in the current year.

The central bank’s main risk provision accounts – Contingency Fund, Currency and Gold
Revaluation Account (CGRA), Investment Revaluation Account Foreign Securities (IRA-FS)
and Investment Revaluation Account-Rupee Securities (IRA-RS) — together now amount to
Rs 13.88 lakh crore.

What is the ‘Contingency Fund’?

This is a specific provision meant for meeting unexpected and unforeseen contingencies,
including depreciation in the value of securities, risks arising out of monetary/exchange rate
policy operations, systemic risks and any risk arising on account of the special responsibilities
enjoined upon the Reserve Bank. This amount is retained within the RBI.

What did the government get as surplus this year?

• The Central Board of the RBI recently approved the transfer of Rs 57,128 crore as surplus – or
dividend — to the Central government for the accounting year 2019-20, sharply lower by 67.5
per cent from Rs 1.76 lakh crore that it paid to the government last year.

• While the RBI’s transfer this year is as per the economic capital framework (ECF) adopted by
the RBI board last year, last year’s transfer included Rs 123,414 crore of dividends due from the
previous financial year 2018-19 and Rs 52,637 crore taken out from CF as per the revised ECF.

• As per Section 47 of the RBI Act, profits or surplus of the RBI are to be transferred to the
government, after making various contingency provisions, public policy mandate of the RBI,
including financial stability considerations.

What is the CGRA Account?

• The Currency and Gold Revaluation Account (CGRA) is maintained by the Reserve Bank to
take care of currency risk, interest rate risk and movement in gold prices.

• Unrealised gains or losses on valuation of foreign currency assets (FCA) and gold are not
taken to the income account but instead accounted for in the CGRA.

• Net balance in CGRA, therefore, varies with the size of the asset base, its valuation and
movement in the exchange rate and price of gold.

• CGRA provides a buffer against exchange rate/ gold price fluctuations. It can come under
pressure if there is an appreciation of the rupee vis-à-vis major currencies or a fall in the price of
gold.

What are IRA-FS and IRA-RS accounts?

• The unrealised gains or losses on revaluation in foreign dated securities are recorded in the
Investment Revaluation Account Foreign Securities (IRA-FS).

• Similarly, the unrealised gains or losses on revaluation is accounted for in Investment

Revaluation Account-Rupee Securities (IRA-RS).

• The balance in IRA-RS increased from Rs 49,476 crore as on June 30, 2019 to Rs 93,415 crore
as on June 30, 2020 due to increase in portfolio of rupee securities and decline in yields on
government of India securities held by the Reserve Bank during the year.

INS Viraat
Decommissioned aircraft carrier Viraat, which has been lying at the Naval dockyard in Mumbai will
be scrapped at Alang in Gujarat soon.

RAJ IAS ACADEMY 27th August, 2020 Page 5

About INS Viraat -

• INS Viraat, a Centaur class aircraft carrier weighing 27,800 tonnes, served in the British
Navy as HMS Hermes for 25 years from November 1959 to April 1984.

• It was commissioned into the Indian Navy in May 1987 after refurbishment and had operated
Harrier fighter jets.

• It was decommissioned from in March 2017, and the the Navy had been incurring expenditure
since then on its upkeep, such as the provision of electricity and water, and repairs. It was also
taking up space in the crowded Naval dockyard.

• This is the second aircraft carrier to be broken in India in the past six years. In 2014, INS
Vikrant, which played a role in the historic 1971 war with Pakistan was broken down in Mumbai.

AUDFs01

AstroSat, India’s first multi-wavelength satellite that has five unique-X ray and ultraviolet
telescopes working in tandem, has detected extreme UV light from a galaxy called AUDFs01, 9.3
billion light-years away from Earth.

What did the research say?

• The team of scientists observed the galaxy, which is located in the Extreme Deep field,
through AstroSat. These observations lasted for more than 28 hours in October 2016. But it
took nearly two years since then to carefully analyse the data to ascertain that the emission is
indeed from the galaxy.

• This is a very important clue to how the dark ages of the Universe ended and there was light
in the Universe. Since UV radiation is absorbed by Earth’s atmosphere, it has to be observed
from space.

• Earlier, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope (HST), which is significantly larger than the Ultra Violet
Imaging Telescope (UVIT) on AstroSat, did not detect any UV emission (with energy greater than
13.6 eV) from this galaxy because it is too faint.

About AstroSat -
• AstroSat is the first dedicated Indian astronomy mission aimed at studying celestial sources
in X-ray, optical and UV spectral bands simultaneously. The payloads cover the energy bands of
Ultraviolet (Near and Far), limited optical and X-ray regime (0.3 keV to 100keV).

• One of the unique features of AstroSat mission is that it enables the simultaneous multi-
wavelength observations of various astronomical objects with a single satellite.

• AstroSat with a lift-off mass of 1515 kg was launched on September 28, 2015 into a 650 km
orbit inclined at an angle of 6 deg to the equator by PSLV-C30 from Satish Dhawan Space
Centre, Sriharikota. The minimum useful life of the AstroSat mission is expected to be 5
years.

• The scientific objectives of AstroSat mission are - To understand high energy processes in
binary star systems containing neutron stars and black holes; Estimate magnetic fields of
neutron stars; Study star birth regions and high energy processes in star systems lying beyond
our galaxy; Detect new briefly bright X-ray sources in the sky, and; Perform a limited deep field
survey of the Universe in the Ultraviolet region.

MCQs
1. Which of the following statement(s) is/are correct about the ‘DigiLocker’?
1. It is a platform for issuance and verification of documents and certificates in a digital way.

2. It provides for digital cloud storage space to the user who has signed up to it using his/her
Aadhaar number.

3. It can only be used by the individuals and there is no scope of usage by organisations yet.

Select the correct codes from below -

A. 1 and 2 only

RAJ IAS ACADEMY 27th August, 2020 Page 6

B. 2 and 3 only

C. 1 and 3 only

D. All of the above

Answer - A

Explanation - DigiLocker is a platform for issuance and verification of documents &

certificates in a digital way, thus eliminating the use of physical documents. Indian citizens
who sign up for a DigiLocker account get a dedicated cloud storage space that is linked to their
Aadhaar (UIDAI) number. Organisations that are registered with Digital Locker can push
electronic copies of documents and certificates (e.g. driving license, Voter ID, School certificates)
directly into citizens lockers. Citizens can also upload scanned copies of their legacy
documents in their accounts. These legacy documents can be electronically signed using the
eSign facility.

2. Which of the following statement(s) is/are correct about ‘Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal
Puraskar’?
1. These awards are meant to only felicitate the children who have achieved extraordinarily in
various fields including innovation, scholastic, sports, art and culture etc.

2. The awards are given annually by the Prime Minister of India to the winners amongst the
nominees invited by the Ministry of Women and Child Development through public platforms.

3. The winners of the award take part in the Republic Day Parade on Rajpath, New Delhi on 26th
of January.

Select the correct codes from below -

A. 1 only

B. 1 and 2 only

C. 3 only

D. All of the above

Answer - C

Explanation - The Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskarwas instituted to felicitate meritorious
children, individuals and institutions of the country. These awards are given under two categories
- Bal Shakti Puraskar and Bal Kalyan Puraskar. While the Bal Shakti Puraskar aims to give
recognition to children who have achieved extraordinarily in various fields including innovation,
scholastic, sports, art & culture, social service and bravery, the Bal Kalyan Puraskar is given as
recognition to Individuals and Institutions, who have made an outstanding contribution towards
service for children in the field of child development, child protection and child welfare. The
Awards are given by the Hon'ble President of India in Darbar Hall, Rashtrapati Bhavan in the
week preceding Republic Day every year. Hon'ble Prime Minister of India also felicitates the
Awardees. The Awardees of Bal Shakti Puraskar also take part in Republic Day Parade on the
26th of January on Rajpath, New Delhi.

3. Export Preparedness Index (2020) was recently released by -

A. SEPC, Ministry of Commerce and Industry

B. Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)

C. Ministry of Finance

D. NITI Aayog

Answer - D

Explanation - NITI Aayog in partnership with the Institute of Competitiveness have released the
Export Preparedness Index (EPI) 2020. It is the first report to examine export preparedness and
performance of Indian states, EPI intends to identify challenges and opportunities; enhance the
effectiveness of government policies; and encourage a facilitative regulatory framework. The
structure of the EPI includes 4 pillars – Policy; Business Ecosystem; Export Ecosystem;
Export Performance – and 11 sub-pillars – Export Promotion Policy; Institutional Framework;
RAJ IAS ACADEMY 27th August, 2020 Page 7
Business Environment; Infrastructure; Transport Connectivity; Access to Finance; Export
Infrastructure; Trade Support; R&D Infrastructure; Export Diversification; and Growth Orientation.

4. Which of the following statement(s) is/are correct?

1. Reserve Bank of India’s ‘Contingency Fund’ is meant to meet unexpected and unforeseen
contingencies.

2. RBI’s Currency and Gold Revaluation Account takes care of currency risk, interest rate risk
and movement in gold prices.

3. RBI’s IRA-FS and IRA-RS accounts record unrealised gains or losses on revaluation of foreign
dated securities and rupee-dated securities, respectively.

Select the correct codes from below -

A. 1 and 2 only

B. 2 and 3 only

C. 1 and 3 only

D. All of the above

Answer - D

Explanation - Contingency Fund of the RBI is a specific provision meant for meeting
unexpected and unforeseen contingencies, including depreciation in the value of securities,
risks arising out of monetary/exchange rate policy operations, systemic risks and any risk arising
on account of the special responsibilities enjoined upon the Reserve Bank. This amount is
retained within the RBI. The Currency and Gold Revaluation Account (CGRA) is maintained by
the Reserve Bank to take care of currency risk, interest rate risk and movement in gold prices.
Unrealised gains or losses on valuation of foreign currency assets (FCA) and gold are not
taken to the income account but instead accounted for in the CGRA. Net balance in CGRA,
therefore, varies with the size of the asset base, its valuation and movement in the exchange rate
and price of gold. CGRA provides a buffer against exchange rate/ gold price fluctuations. It
can come under pressure if there is an appreciation of the rupee vis-à-vis major currencies or a
fall in the price of gold. The unrealised gains or losses on revaluation in foreign dated
securities are recorded in the Investment Revaluation Account Foreign Securities (IRA-FS).
Similarly, the unrealised gains or losses on revaluation is accounted for in Investment
Revaluation Account-Rupee Securities (IRA-RS).

5. Which of the following statement(s) is/are correct?

1. INS Viraat is the first decommissioned aircraft carrier of India.

2. It was commissioned into the Indian Navy from the Soviet Union Navy in the year 1987.

Select the correct codes from below -

A. 1 only

B. 2 only

C. Both 1 and 2

D. Neither 1 nor 2

Answer - D

Explanation - INS Viraat, a Centaur class aircraft carrier weighing 27,800 tonnes, served in the
British Navy as HMS Hermes for 25 years from November 1959 to April 1984. It was
commissioned into the Indian Navy in May 1987 after refurbishment and had operated Harrier
fighter jets. It was decommissioned from in March 2017, and the the Navy had been incurring
expenditure since then on its upkeep, such as the provision of electricity and water, and repairs. It
was also taking up space in the crowded Naval dockyard. This is the second aircraft carrier to be
broken in India in the past six years. In 2014, INS Vikrant, which played a role in the historic 1971
war with Pakistan was broken down in Mumbai.

EDITORIAL SIMPLIFIED
RAJ IAS ACADEMY 27th August, 2020 Page 8

The marginalisation of justice in public discourse

Two ideas appear to dominate our public discourse today. One, somewhat implicitly, self-
interest. The second, far more explicitly, national glory. There is little acknowledgement that the
pursuit of greed and narrow self-interest leads to severe inequalities, to an unequal division of
social benefits. Also missing is the thought that the burden of realising national goals such as
development must be shared equally by all.

Isn’t it wrong that the least paid workers and peasants in our society are expected to offer the
greatest sacrifices for building the nation? Why this grossly unfair division of social labour? Yet,
concern for a fair distribution of benefits and burdens — the core issue of justice — is rare in
mainstream public discourse.

Distributive Justice - Sharing benefits and burdens -

• A society where everything is abundantly available would not need justice. Each of us will have
as much of everything we want. Without the necessity of sharing, justice becomes
redundant.

• Equally, in a society with massive scarcity, justice is impossible. In order to survive, each
person is compelled to grab whatever happens to be available.

• Justice, therefore, is possible and necessary in societies with moderate scarcity.

• Justice also presupposes that people are neither totally alone nor organically united with
others. If one was totally alone, there would be no one with who to share. And, if one was
totally fused with others, with no distinction between self and other, then again, sharing will be
unnecessary.

To sum up, justice acquires value in societies with moderate scarcity, where people are
forced to deal with those who they don’t love. It presupposes a moral psychology in which
humans are neither wholly selfish nor entirely benevolent. Since most societies share these
conditions, we may safely conclude that justice is a necessary social virtue and has great moral
value.

What is justice?
• The basic idea of justice is that ‘each person gets what is properly due to him or her’, that
the benefits and burdens of society be distributed in a manner that gives each person his or her
due. But this begs the question: what is meant by ‘a person’s due’? Here, a distinction must
be made between hierarchical and egalitarian notions of justice.
• In hierarchical notions, what is due to a person is established by her or his place within a
hierarchical system. For instance, by rank determined at birth. Certain groups are born
privileged. Therefore, their members are entitled to a disproportionately large share of benefits,
and a disproportionately small share of burdens.

• In our own times, there is a prevalence of the idea that each person, regardless of caste, class,
colour, creed or gender, has equal moral worth. All have an equal capacity of endowing the
world with meaning and value because of which they possess moral worth or dignity. This is the
essence of egalitarian distributive justice.

The concept of needs and deserts -

Two main contenders exist for interpreting what is due to persons of equal moral worth.

• For the first need-based principle, what is due to a person is what she really needs, i.e.,
whatever is necessary for general human well-being. Since our basic needs are identical,
justice requires their fulfilment in every single person. Beyond this basic threshold, our
needs usually vary, and therefore justice further requires the fulfilment of different needs — say,
the specific needs of a scholar, as well as the very different needs of a mountaineer.

• Second, the principle of desert for which what is due to a person is what he or she
deserves, determined not by birth or tradition but by a person’s own qualities, for instance
‘natural’ talent or productive effort. In short, though we start as equals, those who are
talented or work hard should be rewarded with more benefits and be less burdened.
Conversely, those contributing unequally to the creation of wealth or cultural assets, don’t
deserve the same benefits yielded by them. This underpins the idea of equal opportunity to all,
albeit with justified inequalities of outcome.

RAJ IAS ACADEMY 27th August, 2020 Page 9

Most reasonable egalitarian conceptions of justice try to find a balance between need and desert.
They try to ensure a distribution of goods and abilities (benefits) that satisfies everyone’s needs,
and a fair distribution of social burdens or sacrifices required for fulfilling them. After this, rewards
are permissible to those who by virtue of natural gift, social learning and personal effort, deserve
more.

Conclusion -
Our society is afflicted by deep material, cultural and knowledge-related inequalities. Worse,
these inequalities are growing by the day. Sometimes they are accompanied by blatant assertions
of unequal moral worth. It is therefore imperative to ask where we stand in relation to different
forms of egalitarian justice mentioned in our Preamble. Alas, we are falling way short of standards
of social and distributive justice. When will this trend be reversed? Putting justice back into public
discourse should be our priority. Or else, the dreams of our nation will never turn into reality.

Source - The Hindu

QUESTION - What do you mean by the term ‘justice’? Also discuss the idea of ‘distributive
justice’ in the face of growing inequalities in our society.

Specified Financial Transactions

One significant change in the new Income Tax Return e-filing form is the new Form 26AS — which
has been effective from June 1, 2020 — which would alert the taxpayer about his or her large
financial transactions through the year. This is mentioned in the statement of specified financial
transactions (SFTs).

What are ‘Specified Financial Transactions’?

Specified financial transactions are certain high-value transactions undertaken by citizens that
the Government proposes to track with an intent to curb black money and widen the tax base in
India.

Background -
• The Government of India already requires certain persons and entities to report high-value
transactions undertaken by ordinary folk to the Income Tax department.

• The entities charged with such reporting are banks, mutual funds, institutions issuing bonds
and registrars or sub-registrars which file a statement with the I-T department on financial
transactions such as cash deposits/withdrawals from savings bank accounts/term deposits
amounting to ₹10 lakh or more, credit card payments by cash of ₹1 lakh or more, purchases of
shares, debentures, foreign currency, mutual funds, buyback of shares amounting to ₹10 lakh or
more, expense in foreign currency of ₹10 lakh or more and sale/purchase of immovable property
with transaction value of ₹30 lakh or more, under Section 285BA of Income Tax Act, 1961.

• The threshold limits mentioned above are the aggregate value of all similar transactions in a
financial year.

What has been changed now?

The government recently proposed to expand the scope of reporting of SFTs by including new
high-value transactions, such as domestic business-class air travel/foreign travel; payment of
educational fee/donations; purchase of jewellery, white goods, paintings, marble and electricity
consumption above ₹1 lakh; payment of life insurance policy above ₹50,000; hotel spends; and
payment of health insurance premium more than ₹20,000.

Significance -
• As per the I-T department’s notification in May 2020, SFTs will be part of the new Form 26AS.

• For the uninitiated, earlier the Form 26AS used to give information about the tax deducted
at source, tax collected at source, details of refunds, tax defaults and other taxes paid by
a taxpayer.
• Besides SFTs, now the new Form 26AS also includes other details such as the name of the
institution (or person) reporting the details pertaining to the above-mentioned transactions, the
RAJ IAS ACADEMY 27th August, 2020 Page 10
dates of transaction, number of parties involved in the transaction, mode of payment and
others. When you file your return, your income and tax payment details should be in line with
Form 26AS. The I-T department verifies if the income disclosed in the return is not
commensurate with the expenses reported via SFTs.

• This SFT information will be of immense use to the taxman to cross-verify suspicious
transactions.

Conclusion -
The major intent of the government in including SFTs in Form 26AS is to discourage taxpayers
who conceal financial transactions in their returns. It’s a heads up from the government that the
taxman has been tracking your big transactions.

Source - The Hindu

QUESTION - What is a statement of ‘Specified Financial Transactions’? Why did the

Government introduce the same in Income Tax Returns from AY2020-2021?