The Income Tax department launched its second phase of 'Operation Clean Money' on Friday under which it will investigate 60,000 people/entities to detect the generation of black money post-demonetisation of old currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the I-T department's policy-making body, said that it has detected over Rs 9,334 crores worth of undisclosed income between November 9, 2016 and February 28, 2017. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced his decision to demonetise Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes on November 8 last year in an attempt to curb the menace of black money in the country.
"More than 60,000 persons, including 1,300 high risk persons, have been identified for investigation into the claims of excessive cash sales during the demonetisation period. More than 6,000 transactions of high value property purchase and 6,600 cases of outward remittances shall be subjected to detailed investigations (under Operation Clean Money II)," the Income Tax department was quoted by the Press Trust of India (PTI) as saying.
"All the cases where no response is received shall also be subjected to detailed enquiries," the CBDT said. Officials used advanced data analytics to identify suspect cash deposits before launching the second edition of 'Operation Clean Money', a senior officer said.
During the first phase of 'Operation Clean Money', which was launched on January 31 this year, the I-T Department had sent queries online and also investigated more than 17 lakh individuals. More than 9 lakh people, out of the over 17 lakh individuals who were investigated, responded to the department.
