As search for black money intensifies, government gets tip-offs via 4,000 emails

The government of India has been receiving good response from the public with information on black money hoarders. According to a media report, the government’s official email address blackmoneyinfo@incometax.gov.in has received 4,000 messages since Friday with regards to information on black money. Most of the messages sent to the government’s email id pertain to allegations on deposits in Jan Dhan and urban cooperative bank accounts, credit card payments, loan repayments, electronic transfers and withdrawals etc. among others, The Times of India said in a report. [caption id=“attachment_3120640” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. PTI[/caption] This is in addition to the tax department and various government investigative agencies already getting in huge amount of data on a regular basis about the deposits in bank accounts and other undeclared income through the Financial Intelligence Unit, the TOI report added. In past several weeks, the income tax sleuths have acted on tip-offs and carried out raids on jewellery shops and banks to unearth huge amount of old and new notes. For instance, several branches of private sector bank Axis Bank were raided by income tax officials in recent weeks and crores of rupees were seized. The income tax department last week week raided Axis Bank’s Noida branch and unearthed deposits worth Rs 60 crore from twenty fake accounts. Before this, the IT department had conducted a raid at the bank’s Chandni Chowk branch in New Delhi last week where they uncovered Rs 100 crore deposited in 44 fake accounts. With an aim to root out black money from the system, the government kickstarted voluntary black money declaration under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana starting 17 December till 31 March, 2017. “We want people to join PM Garib Kalyan Yojana and through this scheme they contribute to welfare of the people. Unaccounted cash can be disclosed under PMGKY that comes with 50 percent tax and penalty starting from tomorrow till 31 March, ‘17,” Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia said last week. The Lok Sabha, which passed the Taxation Laws (2nd Amendment) Bill, 2016, on 29 November, said it proposes to levy a total tax, penalty and surcharge of 50 percent on the amount deposited post demonetisation while higher taxes and stiffer penalty of up to 85 percent await those who don’t disclose but are caught.