Seized `77cr goes to Centre’s kitty

■ Fear of hefty fines makes no one claim seized money

Apart from cash, Q over 10 lakh litres of liquor was seized across TS.

The Telangana state Assembly elections have added around `77 crore to the coffers of the Central government in the form of unaccounted and unclaimed money seized by the income-tax department in October and November last year.

The income-tax department would also get a part of the `60 crore that was seized by the state police. This is the largest haul of purportedly illegal money seized by tax officials and police in Telangana state.

Nobody has come forward to stake a claim to any of this seized money due to the fear of attracting higher penalties under the amended Income Tax Act.

Under Section 271AAC of the Income Tax Act, a person holding unaccounted money would have to pay a tax of 103 per cent — which would be three per cent more than the money seized — and penalty. The provisions in the income-tax law were made stricter in the run-up to the 2016 demonetisation.

Before the I-T Act was amended, the incometax department used to deduct 30 per cent as ‘advance tax’ and return the rest of the money to those who claimed ownership.

The Telangana state Assembly elections have added around `77 crore to the coffers of the Central government in the form of unaccounted and unclaimed money seized by the income-tax department in October and November last year.

According to sources, “The defaulting taxpayer was imposed with a penalty that is computed at the rate of 10 per cent of the tax payable. This is in addition to the taxes payable under Section 115BBE. At the end of it, the unaccounted cash worth `77 crore, which was seized during the Telangana elections, was withheld by the incometax department and deposited into the Consolidated Fund of India.”

The highest amount of

■ THE TS Assembly elections in 2018 can be said to be one of the costliest elections ever held, if one goes by the amount of cash seized in the run-up to the polls.

■ THE INCOME-TAX department and police seized nearly `137 crore of which `125 crore was in cash.

■ IN 2014, nearly `50 crore was seized during in the elections held in combined Andhra Pradesh.

cash was seized in Warangal, where I-T sleuths confiscated `5.8 crore from a businessman and `3.6 crore was seized from an aide of a political leader.