Operations against black money to be intensified

With both the one-time black money declaration windows concluded, the Income Tax department is set to intensify its crackdown against stash holders after a recent case where an IDS participant surrendered a fresh Rs 30 crore of unaccounted wealth to the taxman after raids were conducted against him.

The case that recently took place in Kolkata has stunned authorities of the IT investigations wing after the said business entity produced, during searches, a bona fide receipt declaring about Rs 3 crore worth of black money under the Income Declaration Scheme (IDS) that ended on September 30.

The entity, however, had concealed about Rs 30 crore illegal wealth which only came to light when the department conducted a "routine search" based on "actionable information" of tax evasion few days back.

While official sources did not disclose the identity of the entity citing IDS confidentiality clauses, they said the taxman will undertake strict action of penalty and prosecution against the entity as he hid his actual income and made a partial declaration under the IDS.

Tax officials said there have been few more cases in the southern part of the country where tax evasion worth crores has been found in searches carried out by the department, after the IDS window closed.

Officials said taking into cognisance such cases, I-T sleuths are now expected to intensify their search and seizure operations to unearth as much black money as possible within this fiscal.