Chandigarh: Seizure of huge sum of undisclosed
cash in Punjab ahead of Assembly Elections has supplemented
Income Tax department`s efforts in detecting unexplained
income in the shortest time, an I-T official has said.
"The (undisclosed) cash seizure is increasing (in Punjab)
and we (Income Tax department) are seizing cash after due
verification. In most of the cases, the cash so seized is the
unaccounted business income of people which is not accounted
for," Income Tax (Investigation), Director, H S Sohi said.
On the directions of Election Commission of India, State
Static Surveillance teams have found unaccounted cash
amounting to Rs 16.76 crore across Punjab till now since Code
of Conduct came into force on December 24, 2011 and out of
which about Rs 8 crore has been seized by the Income Tax
department.
As per Election Commission’s guidelines, any person
carrying cash over Rs 2.5 lakh would have to support the same
with evidences during checking.
Significantly, the seizure of more than Rs 8 crore by
Income Tax department in just past two weeks in the wake of
Punjab Assembly elections on January 30 is almost equal to
what the department has seized during its seven search and
seizure operations carried out in last nine months over
several business premises in the state.
"We have seized cash of Rs 7.70 crore during our search
and seizure operations and found undisclosed income of Rs 233
crore so far in current fiscal," Sohi informed.
The confiscation of black money would add to the
detection of total unaccounted money by the department in
current fiscal.
PTI
