Tax department's cash detection ability being strengthened: FM

As the bulk of black money is in India, Jaitley pitched for a a change in attitude to make plastic currency the norm and cash an exception

The tax department's ability to detect large cash transactions is being strengthened to check the menace of black money as a bulk of it remains within India, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said today.

"The monitoring regime of the income tax department has been strengthened and its capacity to access information and apply technology-driven analytical tools to expose evasion, has been enhanced. Its ability to detect large cash withdrawals, or large cash transactions which enter the system, is being strengthened," Jaitley said in a Facebook post while listing out various measures being taken by the government to address the black money problem.

He also said that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, once introduced, will also be a landmark step in this direction.

"Thus for commodities like gold where the initial purchase by the exporter is after the payment of custom duty, the subsequent transactions which are mostly in cash, can easily be found out," the Finance Minister said.

Jaitley said "the bulk of black money is still within India" and pitched for a a change in attitude to make plastic currency the norm and cash an exception.

"Seized with this problem, the government has been working with various authorities in order to incentivise this change. The opening of a large number of payment gateways, internet banking, payment banks and the emerging reality of e-commerce will prompt the use of banking transactions and plastic money to rise significantly," he said.

The finance minister also said that the government is at an advanced stage in considering the requirement of furnishing PAN card details if cash transactions beyond a certain limit are undertaken.

Jaitley said the government's policy is to rationalise tax structures, taxation at reasonable rates, placing more money in the hands of small earners, encouraging and promoting the use of plastic money and creating deterrence against those who continue to use unaccounted money.