The Revenue Department on Friday said it has detected evasion of more than Rs 1.37 lakh crore in both direct and indirect taxes and identified over 1,000 shell companies which indulged in bogus transactions worth Rs 13,300 crore in the last three financial years. Warning tax evaders, it said the relentless crusade against black money will be further intensified in the coming days.
The department said more than 245 benami transactions have been identified and provisional attachments of properties worth Rs 55 crore have already been made in 124 cases as per the amended benami transactions prohibition law which came into effect from November, 2016. A total of 23,064 searches were conducted by the Revenue Department, of which 17,525 were by the Income Tax Department and remaining by the customs, excise and service tax wings. More than Rs 1.37 lakh crore of tax evasion has been detected during the last three fiscals (2013-14 to 2015-16). This includes evasion worth Rs 69,434 crore in income tax, Rs 11,405 crore in customs, Rs 13,952 crore in Central Excise and Rs 42,727 crore in Service Tax, an official statement said. Also, criminal prosecutions were launched in 2,814 cases, which included 1,966 income tax cases.
A total of 3,893 persons were placed under arrest. As many as 3,782 people were arrested for customs evasion, 47 for central excise and 64 for service tax. A crackdown against shell companies engaged in nefarious activities was effected through enforcement actions (searches, surveys, arrests, prosecutions) by the law enforcement agencies. During the last 3 FYs, Income Tax investigations led to detection of more than 1,155 shell companies/entities used as conduits by over 22,000 beneficiaries. The amount involved in non-genuine transactions of such beneficiaries was more than Rs 13,300 crore, it said.
The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has issued more than a lakh notices for striking off names of defunct/non-compliant companies. It has already set up a high powered group for co-ordinating and monitoring the actions taken by departments concerned with the objective of eliminating the conduits of black money generation and application.