Over 30,000 pieces of info on black money under I-T scanner

More than 30,000 pieces of information about black money in India have come under the scanner of the Income Tax Department.

The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), under the Finance Ministry, has gathered voluminous data on suspicious transactions, the department informed a global OECD conference held here recently.

Black money hoarders have also disclosed more than Rs 430 crore of unaccounted funds to the I-T department after the government received classified information from various countries on stashed funds under the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA).

"30,765 pieces of domestic information about suspicious transactions has been obtained by FIU which are under investigation," Director General of I-T Investigations (Delhi) KV Chowdary said while speaking about India's efforts to combat illegal funds in a power-point presentation to global tax sleuths and officials present at the conference.

Chowdary, a senior Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer, was the lead speaker on behalf of the Finance Ministry and CBDT for talking on the issue of black money, High Net Worth Individuals (who own assets worth at least Rs5 crore) and India's efforts to tackle the menace.

"Under DTAA, India received information regarding certain Indians having bank accounts abroad. In 80 cases, the department has detected undisclosed income of Rs 438 crore and taxes of Rs 135 crore realised so far," he said.

A three-day conference titled 'Tax and Inequality' was organised here jointly by the global financial body Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the I-T Department.

"Investigation wing of CBDT has detected concealed income of Rs18,750 crore in last two financial years. Focused searches have been conducted in a number of cases in the current year on the basis of information received from foreign jurisdictions under the provisions of DTAA," Chowdary said, speaking on the topic 'High net worth individuals, transparency and international cooperation' at the conference.

"Specific requests have been made by tax authorities in 350 cases till date and 9,920 pieces of information regarding details of assets and payments received by Indian citizens in several countries have been obtained which are under verification," he said.

The December 7-9 conference was inaugurated by Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

India also spelt out various measures it has taken to combat black money and other taxation issues during the conference which was attended by delegates from about 100 countries.