As the 50-days of demonetisation exercise ends on Friday, over Rs 4,313 crore of stashed cash has been detected till Thursday by the Income Tax (I-T) Department under the Finance Ministry.
Post-demonetisation since November 8, the I-T department conducted over 1,000 raids and survey operations as part of its country-wide operations against black money hoarders. Besides, the newly opened bank accounts and lockers are also being closely monitored by the department to check transaction patterns and to rule out any discrepancy.
According to the official sources, taxmen have detected a total of Rs 4,313.79 crore undisclosed income and seized cash and jewellery worth Rs 554.6 crore as part of these operations till December 29.
“The department carried out a total of 1,061 raids, surveys and enquiries across the country to detect suspected tax-evasion instances since the note ban, was declared on November 8,” the taxmen said.
The I-T department has issued about 5,058 notices to various entities on charges of tax evasion and hawala-like dealings. “The department has also seized Rs 106.89 crore in new currency, largely Rs 2,000 notes, as part of these operations apart from freezing jewellery and bullion worth Rs 91.99 crore,” they said, adding the total undisclosed income admitted or detected as part of the action conducted by the I-T department, till December 29, is Rs 4313.79 crore.
“Our work has just begun. With over 90 per cent of the demonetised currency back in bank accounts, tracking their legitimacy is our next move,” said one of the tax officials.
However, sources close to the development said the investigating agencies are also monitoring the role of the bank officials. “The bank officials play an important role in this drive and in many instances they are also being probed,” he said, adding that the Reserve Bank of India has also asked banks to preserve the CCTV recordings of the operations and transactions done by bank officials since November 8.
Meanwhile, the agency has referred a total of 487 cases to sister agencies like CBI and the Enforcement Directorate to probe other financial crimes like money laundering, disproportionate assets and corruption.