Demonetisation effect: Tax raids unearthed Rs 2,000 crore

Undisclosed wealth to the tune of Rs 2,000 crore has been admitted by tax dodgers and Rs 130 crore worth of cash and jewellery has been seized in the course of raids carried out by the Income Tax Department after the demonetisation of high-value notes on November 8.

According to a statement issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), over 30 of these cases have been referred to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) which deals with violations under the foreign exchange management Act (FEMA) and CBI which looks into cases of corruption.

The two agencies will undertake further investigations in these cases. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had ordered the Revenue Department to crackdown on black money holders. The IT Department has carried out swift investigations in more than 400 cases since November 8 and concerted action is being taken by the department, ED and CBI in detecting malpractices, the statement added.

Detecting serious irregularities beyond the Income-Tax Act, the CBDT decided to refer such cases to the Enforcement Directorate and the CBI, enabling them to examine the criminal conduct for immediate action. More than 30 such references have already been made to the ED, and are being sent to the CBI, it said. Stepping up the war on black money and terror funding, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on November 8 announced demonetisation of 500 and 1000 rupee notes and asked holders of such currencies to deposit it in bank accounts by December-end.

The value of these currency notes was estimated at over 14 lakh crore and they comprised 86 per cent of the total currency in circulation. As per latest RBI data, Rs 8.45 lakh crore worth of such currency notes were deposited in banks till November 27. Giving details of various cases that have been referred to ED and CBI, the statement said the Mumbai unit has referred a case where Rs 80 lakh in new high denomination currency notes were seized.

The Bengaluru Investigation Unit of the Income Tax Department has sent maximum references numbering 18 to ED. These are cases where undisclosed cash in new high denomination notes was seized by the Department.

The Ludhiana Unit has referred two cases, where seizures of USD 14,000 and Rs 72 lakh in cash were made. Hyderabad forwarded a case involving seizure of Rs 95 lakh cash from five persons.

Pune's reference stems from a seizure of Rs 20 lakh cash, including Rs 10 lakhs in new currency notes from an unallotted locker of urban cooperative bank, the key of which was in the possession of the CEO of the bank. Two cases referred by the Bhopal unit are of jewellers against whom evidence of large scale predating of bills and flouting of PAN reporting norms were detected during searches.

The cases referred from the Delhi unit include the Axis Bank, Kashmiri Gate branch case in which complicity of officers of the bank in malpractices was detected. ED has already arrested two bank officials in this regard.

Last week CBDT had said that it has found various inconsistencies in cash deposits in Jan Dhan accounts and detected about Rs 1.64 crore deposited by persons who have never filed tax returns as their income is shown to be below the taxable limit.