FIU detects over Rs 7,800-cr black money; gets record STRs
27 April 2015 10:15 PM IST
Government detected a whopping over Rs 7,800 crore of illegal monies within the country and abroad during 2013-14 as the elite Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) found all-time high cases of suspicious transactions in the country's economic channels.
As per a latest report prepared by the Finance Ministry, the FIU's action led to the "detection of unaccounted income of Rs 7,078 crore by the Income Tax department while the Customs and Service Tax departments detected evasion of Rs 750 crore" during the said period.
After the premier technical snoop wing under the Finance Ministry processed country-wide Suspicious Transaction Reports (STRs) it obtained from various financial institutions, the report said, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) also "detected proceeds of crime to the tune of Rs 20 crore and seized assets to the tune of Rs 17 crore."
The report, accessed by PTI, said as a result of this electronic intelligence generated by FIU, the "I-T department seized assets worth Rs 163 crore and the Service Tax department sealed assets worth Rs 17 crore during the same period."
Also, as part of the same action the ED registered as many as 105 fresh criminal FIRs under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) apart from its regular operations against money launderers and hawala operatives in the said time period.
The total black money detected by FIU stands at Rs 7,848 crore during the last year, a senior Finmin official said who did not wish to be quoted.
The huge amount of black money could be detected during 2013-14, the official said, as the FIU witnessed an about 100 per cent jump in receiving the STRs at 61,953 dossiers as compared to a mere 31,731 STRs received by it during 2012-13.
The agency also received a total of 87,79,082 Cash Transaction Reports (CTRs), 3,01,804 Counterfeit Currency Reports (CCRs) and 80,616 Non-Profit Organisation Transaction Reports (NTRs), the latest updated report also submitted to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) on black money, said.
STR is defined as a transaction which gives rise to a reasonable suspicion that it may involve proceeds of a crime or appears to be made in circumstances of unjustified complexity or gives reasonable grounds to suspect that it may be linked to terrorist activities.
I-T dept publishes list of big tax defaulters in newspapers
As part of its strategy of 'naming and shaming' big defaulters, the Income Tax department on Sunday published names of 31 tax evaders who owe over Rs 1,500 crore tax to the government. The names, last known addresses and vital financial details of these entities were published in newspapers here as the department mentioned that either these assessees were "not traceable" to it or the taxman found "inadequate assets" in the name of these defaulters to obtain the due taxes from them. "The step is aimed to publicise and put these names in public domain so that the common man can come forward to help the department in knowing the whereabouts of these defaulters. The step is to enhance public awareness against these entities who are acting against law. These names were earlier were put up on the department's website earlier," a senior I-T officer said. The department published the names of the 31 defaulters under the seal of the Principal Chief Commissioner of Income Tax (Administration) based in the national capital here.
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