₹540 crore black money found by IT department
In the past few days, the Income Tax department has been on a roll to catch stashed black money.
They have given black money hoarders a last chance under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY) to come clean by March 31.
After the deadline was finished, the department started taking action and since then they have managed to capture ₹540 crore of black money.
Tax detectives have conducted their search right from the beginning of financial year on April 1. They attacked shell firms, government officials, and various sectors like real estate.
The department has done more than 250 search and survey operations in just these 20 days. 300 shell firms were raided on and 540 crores of black money was found.
The government has so far given three different chances for black money hoarders to come clean. The first was given to those who held illegal assets abroad and then the government gave the Income Declaration Scheme (IDS) last year for them to declare domestic black funds.
Lastly, the PMGKY was introduced to check hidden money after the demonetization.
According to sources, three major searches were conducted in Noida where an entry operator was helping 200 shell firms by providing fake sale and purchase orders to turn black money to white.
Even a senior government official from Uttar Pradesh was searched during these past days.
Surprisingly, the department found unaccounted cash payments of ₹2 crore and four hidden immovable properties in the name of his wife.
Similarly, ₹120 crore of black money was found by the department from an Ahmedabad-based real estate agent. This case had multiple fake entities, so the department is still investigating it.
A business group from Pune was also searched against and they surrendered ₹19 crore income to the department as it was black money not recorded in account books.
According to the officials of IT department, such searches will continue and more black money will be unearthed and strong action will be taken against those who hoard it.
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