Income Tax department reveals Rs 13,715 crore undisclosed income last fiscal

The income tax department unearthed undisclosed income of Rs 13,715 crore through surveys in 2016-17, Minister of State for Finance Santosh Kumar Gangwar.

Last fiscal, the income tax department conducted searches at 5,102 premises of 1,152 groups during which undisclosed income of Rs 15,496 crore was admitted.

"During the same period, 12,526 surveys led to the detection of undisclosed income of Rs 13,715 crore," Gangwar said. 

A total of 1.96 crore income tax returns were filed between November 9, 2016, to March 31, 2017, compared with 1.63 crore returns filed during the same period of 2015- 16, he added. In a separate reply, Gangwar said that during phase one of 'Operation Clean Money' launched on January 31, about 18 lakh persons were identified whose cash transactions did not match their tax profiles.

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More than 9.27 lakh responses were received giving information on 13.33 lakh accounts, involving cash deposits of around Rs 2.89 lakh crore, he said. 

On 8th November, Narendra Modi in a single stroke wiped out the old 500 and 1,000 rupee notes to curb the menace of black money and counterfeit illegal money.

The I-T department had then launched Operation Clean Money to clamp down on unaccounted money funneled into bank accounts, post demonetisation. In phase two, launched in May, the tax department had undertaken a rule-based comprehensive risk assessment framework to classify cases with different levels of risk. 

As per the classification, one lakh people were identified under the 'high risk' category, 7.54 lakh under 'medium risk', 5.95 lakh under 'low risk' and 3.41 lakh under 'very low risk', Gangwar said.