I-T seizes Rs 31 cr unaccounted cash in poll season

The Income tax department has seized Rs 31.39 crore of “unaccounted money” in the run up to the assembly elections in five states and the Union Territory of Puducherry. The raids were part of a drive by the Election Commission to prevent the use of black money to woo voters.

According to the Income tax (I-T) department, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry contributed Rs 18.97 crore to the state coffer, officials seized Rs 10.88 crore from West Bengal and Assam and Rs 1.54 crore from Kerala.

“We have carried out the seizure in cases where the person concerned failed to give satisfactory explanation about the source and purpose of the cash,” said Anjani Kumar, the designated nodal officer to monitor cash movement during the assembly elections.

“We were asked to keep a vigil on the cash movements in the poll-bound states by the Election Commission. We started the monitoring work the day EC issued the press note on election and continued the work till the last date of polling,” Kumar said. Earlier, the expenditure-monitoring wing of EC used to carryout the surveillance. But, this time, EC felt the I-T department was better equipped to monitor the movement of cash following a successful run during the Bihar assembly election last year.

The seized cash is in the custody of the I-T department and investigations will be carried out later. “During this process we worked under the provision of the I-T acts. But our objective was different. We did not look for high-end revenue and even seized small amounts if prima facie this seemed to be unaccounted money. Whether there is any tax-demand or not will be clear only after further investigation,” he said.

Special arrangements were made by the the EC in all districts of the sates to perform the exercise. “One additional director or director of I-T investigation was there in each state headquarter. Every district had one district commissioner with two-three officers to cover all the constituencies of that district for surveillance purpose,” he said. Even airports, hotels and railway stations were under the radar of the Income Tax department.

Kumar said the department had a problem of man-power. “We did not have enough men. Even for Kerala and Tamil Nadu we had to involve officials from neighbouring states like Karnataka,” he added.