Proxy sleuthing over tax evasion

Tax and intelligence agencies in India appear to have less faith in their own investigative powers. Some officials now want Indian journalists to do what the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists is doing - investigative reporting to identify tax evaders. A tax department official said he heard from somebody that cash worth Rs 550 crore was transferred in an Innova after a land deal in Gurgaon last week, adding that the department could not take any action in the absence of any details but the media should do some meaningful journalism and expose such deals. He also came up with the old idea of banning Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes from circulation, so that only those with white money come forward to get these notes replaced with smaller denomination notes of Rs 100 and Rs 50.