Lok Sabha Question No. 5650 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2017-04-07
Subject: Black Money
Ministry: FINANCE
Asked by: P.R. SUNDARAM, PR. SENTHILNATHAN, YERRAM VENKATA SUBBAREDDY, AJAY (TENI) MISRA, NALIN KUMAR KATEEL

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF FINANCE DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 5650 TO BE ANSWERED ON FRIDAY, THE 7 TH  APRIL, 2017

CHAITRA 17, 1939 (SAKA)

## BLACK MONEY

5650: SHRI P.R. SUNDARAM:

SHRI PR. SENTHIL NATHAN:

SHRI Y.V. SUBBA REDDY:

SHRI AJAY MISRA TENI:

SHRI NALIN KUMAR KATEEL:

## Will the Minister of FINANCE be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government has estimated the amount of black money in form of  old Rs.500 and Rs.1000 that have not been deposited during the course of the demonetisation drive, if so, the details thereof and the action taken to recover the said amount;
- (b) the total number of persons who deposited more than Rs. 5 lakhs of old currencies during demonetisation, States/UTs and Bank-wise;
- (c) whether as per bank guidelines no loan can be repaid in cash during demonetization and if so, the details thereof;
- (d)  whether  a  number  of  loan  account  holders  paid  the  loan  amount  in  cash  during  the demonetisation period; and
- (e) if so, the details thereof along with the action taken by the Government against such loan account holders?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR FINANCE (SHRI SANTOSH KUMAR GANGWAR)

- (a): There is no official estimation of the amount of black money in form of old Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 that have not been deposited during the course of the demonetisation drive.
- (b): As reported by 1735 reporting entities from all parts of the country, cash deposits of more than Rs. 5 Lakhs were made in about 23.87 lakh accounts between 08.11.2016 to 30.12.2016. Separate details of such deposits in old and new currency are not maintained.

(c): As per extant guidelines of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), repayment of outstanding loan amount in cash is not prohibited.

(d): During the period 08.11.2016 to 30.12.2016, cumulative cash deposits of more than Rs. 25 lacs of all kinds were made in about 4.62 lakh loan accounts. Separate details of such deposits in old and new currency are not maintained.

(e): On December 8, 2016, a detailed instruction was issued by the RBI to banks, advising them to track movement of cash in large quantities to ensure that the extant instructions of the RBI are followed both in letter and spirit. RBI also forwarded an illustrative list of action points to the banks  with  advice  to  utilise  their  internal  resources  to  monitor  the  position  and  bring  any anomaly noticed to their Audit Committee of the Board.

The  Income-tax  Department  (ITD)  conducted  more  than  1100  search  and  survey  actions  and issued about 5100 notices during the same period for verification of suspicious transactions of high value cash deposits. These actions led to seizure of valuables of more than Rs 610 crore which includes  cash  of  Rs.  513  crore and  admission  of  undisclosed  income  of  more  than  Rs. 5400 crore till 10 January, 2017.

Further,  the  ITD  has  initiated  'Operation  Clean  Money'  on  31 st  January  2017  to  leverage technology and data analytics for e-verification of cash deposits made during the demonetization period. In the initial phase, about 17.92 Lakh persons whose tax profiles were not in line with the cash deposits made by them during the demonetization period were identified. Online responses as  per  pre-defined  parameters  on  source(s) of  cash  deposited  were sought.  More  than 12  lakh responses have been received. Evaluation of such responses and further actions are part of ongoing  processes  of  the  ITD  which  includes  enquiries,  assessments,  levy  of  penalty  and  filing prosecution complaints in appropriate cases wherever applicable.

Persons who paid the loan amounts in cash during demonetization period and who were covered within  the  parameters  of  cases  selected  for  verification  are  part  of  the  aforesaid  verification process.

Further, disclosure of information in respect of specific persons is prohibited except as provided under section 138 of the Income-tax Act, 1961.

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