Income Tax department attaches benami properties worth Rs 39 billion

Income tax department has provisionally attached benami properties of over Rs 39 billion in more than 1,200 cases, the Finance Ministry informed the Rajya Sabha today.

In a written reply, Minister of State for Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla also said the tax department has identified more than 1,600 benami transactions till end-February.

"Show cause notices for provisional attachment of benami properties were issued in over 1,500 cases and provisional attachment has been made in over 1,200 cases. The value of properties under attachment is over Rs 39 billion," he said.

In another reply, Shukla said till date, in three phases of 'operation clean money', the income tax department has identified around 22.69 lakh persons whose tax profile was found to be inconsistent with the case deposits made by them during the demonetisation period

"Total case to the tune of Rs 5.27 lakh crore has been found to be deposited in bank accounts in case of these 22.69 lakh taxpayers during demonetisation period," Shukla said.

However, the unaccounted income in such transactions, if any, can be quantified only after completion of the verification/assessment process.