80000 crore black money detected since 2014: RTI

According to information obtained under the RTI Act by a city resident, the central government has discovered black money worth over Rs 80,000 crore since 2014 and has brought back close to Rs 4,000 crore in taxes and penalties.

According to the Central Board of Direct Taxes‘ response, notices were issued for nearly Rs 40,000 crore in assets under the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015, while the Panama and Paradise paper leaks revealed Rs 20,300 crore in India-linked entities. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists discovered more than Rs 11,010 crore in unreported foreign accounts as a result of their investigations.

In the HSBC investigations, another Rs 8,468 crore in concealed revenue was discovered in unregistered foreign accounts.

As of February 28, 592 notices under the Black Money Act had been issued, including unreported overseas assets and income totaling more than Rs 39,620 crore. A total of 110 criminal cases have been filed. Apart from that, the response shows that 648 people filed disclosures regarding unreported foreign assets worth Rs 4,164 crore during the one-time three-month compliance window provided after the Act was implemented until September 2015. In such cases, the government received Rs 2,476 crore in taxes and penalties.

The government imposed more than Rs 1,294 crore in tax and penalties in the HSBC instances, which were worth roughly Rs 8,468 crore. The Panama and Paradise Papers revelations netted the government Rs 154.98 crore in taxes. The income tax authorities conducted searches and seizures on 5,865 groups between April 2014 and February 2022, seizing assets worth Rs 8,651.87 crore. In total, the Department of Information Technology has filed prosecutions in 12,044 cases. 333 persons were found guilty by the courts.