Searches, seizures and surveys conducted by the Income Tax (I-T) department have detected nearly Rs 71,941 crore in "undisclosed income" over the last three years, the central government told the Supreme Court on Saturday.
The Ministry of Finance in its affidavit said that "the total undisclosed income admitted was more than Rs 5,400 crore and the total quantity of gold seized stood at 303.367 kg" during the demonetisation period from November 9, 2016, to January 10, 2017.
The Finance Ministry also provided details of the "undisclosed income" over the last three years from April 1, 2014 to February 28, 2017, including the period of demonetisation, PTI reported.
The affidavit also stated that the IT Department carried out searches on more than 2,027 groups, "which led to the admission of undisclosed income of more than Rs 36,051 crore," in the last three years. "This is in addition to the seizure of undisclosed assets worth Rs 2,890 crore," it added.
Over 1,100 searches and surveys and more than 5,100 verifications were carried out. "The total seizure through these actions was of about Rs 610 crore, including cash of Rs 513 crore. The cash included new currency seizures of more than Rs 110 crore. The total undisclosed income admitted was more than Rs 5,400 crore," the affidavit stated.
Between the same time period, the IT Department also conducted over 15,000 surveys resulting in "detection of undisclosed income of more than Rs 33,000 crore".
The Finance Ministry's affidavit also highlighted the achievements of the demonetisation period, saying that a "significantly large number of enforcement actions were undertaken by the IT department" within two months starting November 9 last year, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced his decision to demonetise currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 denominations.
The Ministry of Finance said that the Home Ministry had in its July 11 communication mentioned largescale misuse of the period granted for exchange of demonetised notes. Information on the same was provided by intelligence agencies.
"Seizure of cash during the month of November and December 2016 was to the tune of Rs 147.9 crore and Rs 306.897 crore respectively, while seizure of gold for the months of November and December 2016 were 69.1 kg and 234.267 kg respectively," it said.
The report added that more than 400 cases were referred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) following the detection of several instances of manipulation to convert unaccounted cash into legal tender by various entities.
