IT strict action against black money holders

New Delhi March 15: Income Tax department has started gear towards the black money cases in which the current fiscal year.

Prosecution action by the Income Tax department in black money cases has shot up three times with the taxman filing over 570 such charge sheets across the country till January this year.

The department, as per an official report accessed by PTI, has also directed its field offices to not spare cases of "serious irregularities" in deposits ascertained by it under 'Operation Clean Money' after demonetisation and file court cases against such entities too.

The latest prosecution figures do not include action linked to demonetisation as such cases are still in the investigation stage, a senior I-T officer said.



The report said I-T prosecution action in cases of tax evasion has jumped three hundred per cent to 570 complaints filed till January under the current 2016-17 financial year, as compared to 196 such complaints filed in courts during the corresponding period in the last fiscal across the country.

Under I-T laws, a court conviction for tax offences can lead to imprisonment of up to seven years in addition to fine and interest and penalty on the tax evaded.

The report stated that apart from filing of prosecution cases in courts, the department 'has received 1,195 applications praying for compounding of offences committed by taxpayers'.

"This is almost double the number of the applications filed during corresponding period in the last financial year," it said.