New Delhi: The Income-Tax department has found undisclosed income worth Rs 2,000 crore during nationwide raids and searches that also yielded Rs 130 crore in cash and jewellery after the Centre’s demonetisation decision a month ago.
The department has conducted swift investigations into more than 400 cases after the November 8 decision to scrap Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 banknotes.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has found serious irregularities beyond the purview of the I-T Act, and decided to refer such cases to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the CBI to examine criminal conduct and ensure immediate and necessary action.
Over 30 such references have already been made to the ED, and cases are also being sent to the CBI. The Centre got information of several places where the old currency notes were being exchanged at a discount and are even being used to purchase gold.
ED gets 18 cases from Bengaluru
The action also follows the Centre’s four-month window for suspected tax dodgers in India to declare their hidden wealth. The government’s compliance window had ended on September 30 with Rs 67,382 crore declared, yielding about Rs 30,000 crore to the government in taxes, half of it in the current fiscal itself.
Bengaluru’s investigation unit of the I-T department has sent maximum references (18) to the ED. These are cases in which undisclosed cash in new high-denomination notes was seized.
Mumbai's unit has referred a case in which Rs80 lakh in new high-denomination currency notes was seized. Ludhiana’s unit has referred two cases in which seizures of Rs14,000 and Rs72 lakh in cash were made.
Hyderabad shared a case involving a seizure of Rs95 lakh in cash from five persons travelling in a Tata Indica. Pune’s reference stems from a seizure of Rs 20 lakh in cash from an unallotted locker of an urban cooperative bank, the key of which was in the possession of the bank’s CEO. Two cases referred by the Bhopal unit are of jewellers against whom evidence of large-scale pre-dating of bills and flouting of PAN reporting norms during the searches conducted.
