ED HAS KEY ROLE TO PLAY IN WAR AGAINST BLACK MONEY: JAITLEY

About 900,000 regis tered companies do not file annual returns and are potentia sources of money laundering, a top government official said on Saturday, as finance minister Arun Jaitley pitched for the coun try’s top anti-financial crime agency to be used “expeditiously” against tax cheats. Revenue sec retary Hasmukh Adhia said the PMO had set up a task force to monitor these firms and “there is no reason for us to let such com panies operate in India”.

Of 1.5 million companies regis tered in India, about 600,000 file their returns, including annua audited reports, with the minis try of corporate affairs. About half of them show zero income official records show. “We have given notices to some of them,” Adhia said at a function of the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

The BJP government has intensified its drive against tax evaders since its November 8 decision to scrap old 500- and 1000 rupee notes, a move PM Naren dra Modi said was aimed at breaking India’s black economy

Cracking down on shell com panies, the government decided in February to take “harsh puni tive” action including freezing the bank accounts used to laun der money, evade taxes. Shel companies are fronts used as con duits to convert illicit money into legal cash, and are key to money laundering operations.

Speaking at the same event finance minister Jaitley said the revenue department and the ED had a “very important role to play” in India’s war against black money.