Post note ban, I-T detected Rs 5400 cr undisclosed income in 1100 searches

Minister of State for Finance Santosh Kumar Gangwar has informed Shimla Member Parliament Virender Kashyap and 10 other Members of Parliament in the Lok Sabha that the Income Tax Department conducted more than 1100 searches, seizures and surveys and issued more than 5100 notices, during the period November 9 2016 to January 10, 2017, for verification of suspicious high value cash deposits in old high denominations as part of on-going actions against black money post demonetization.

He told Kashyap in a written reply that these actions have led to the seizure of valuables of more than Rs. 610 crore which includes cash of Rs. 513 crore. Rest of the seized valuables is mainly in the form of gold, jewellary and silver. Seizure of cash included new currency notes of about Rs 110 crore. The undisclosed income detected till 10th January 2017 in these on-going investigations was more than Rs. 5400 crore.

Relevant information has been shared by the Income Tax Department with other law enforcement agencies such as Enforcement Directorate and Central Bureau of Investigation, for appropriate action.

Gangwar further informed that as on November 8, 2016 there were 17165 million pieces of Rs. 500 and 6858 million pieces of Rs. 1000 in circulation. The value of Specified Bank Notes of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 returned to RBI and Currency Chests amounted to Rs. 12.44 lakh crore as of December 10, 2016.

He also said that appropriate action against offenders is an on-going process, adding that a number of effective measures have been taken by the government to verify cash deposits in old Rs.500 and Rs.1000 notes made in the banks by those persons in whose case deposits were not in line with their existing profile based upon filings with the income tax department.

Such measures include e-verification process of cash deposits under 'Operation Clean Money' which includes collection of relevant information on cash transactions, collation and analysis of such information, extensive use of information technology and data analytics tools for identification of high risk cases, expeditious verification of suspect cases mostly in a non-intrusive manner and enforcement actions in appropriate cases, which include searches, surveys, enquiries, assessment of income, levy of taxes, penalties, etc. and filing of prosecution complaints in criminal courts, wherever applicable.