Lok Sabha Question No. 1082 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2017-07-21
Subject: Law Flouters during Demonetisation
Ministry: FINANCE
Asked by: N.K. PREMACHANDRAN

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF FINANCE DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMIC AFFAIRS LOK SABHA

## TO BE ANSWERED ON 21 ST JULY, 2017/30 TH ASHADHA SAKA, 1939 Law Flouters during Demonetisation

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1082

1082. SHRI N.K. PREMACHANDRAN

## QUESTION

Will the Minister of Finance be pleased to state:

- (b) if  so,  the  details  of  such  violators  and  the  amount  involved  if  more  than  Rs.  25  lakhs, individual, company, institution, bank/State/UT-wise;
- (a) whether the Government proposes to public the list of law flouters violates of norms during demonetisation;
- (c) whether the Government proposes to take action against the aforesaid persons, company, institutions including banks for such violations and if so, the details thereof, State/UT-wise;
- (e) if so, the details of the total amount of black money and fake notes seized, State/ UT-wise?
- (d) whether  the  Government  identified  black  money  and  fake  notes  in  connection  with demonetisation; and

## ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF FINANCE

## (SHRI ARJUN RAM MEGHWAL )

(a) & (b) Disclosure  of  information  regarding  specific  taxpayers  is  prohibited  except  as provided under section 138 of the Income-tax Act, 1961.

(c) to (e) Appropriate actions including searches, surveys, and enquiries were taken by the Income Tax Department (ITD) for serious violations of the provisions of the Income Tax Act, 1961. Further, disclosure of information regarding specific taxpayers is prohibited except as provided under section 138 of the Income-tax Act, 1961.

Operation Clean Money was launched on 31 st January 2017 with the mission to ' Create a tax compliant society through a fair, transparent and non-intrusive tax administration where every Indian takes pride in paying taxes '. In the process, about 18 lakh persons were identified whose cash transactions did not appear in line with their tax profile. Such persons were approached through  SMS/email (non-intrusive  method  without  even  a  notice) .The  contacted  persons  were required to submit their responses by logging into a specified website. As an outcome, more than 9.27 lakh responses were received providing information on 13.33 lakh accounts involving cash deposits of around Rs.2.89 lakh crores. Appropriate action under direct tax law in the remaining cases has been taken. Subsequently, advance data analytics tools were deployed and 5.56 lakhs new cases were identified for online verification.

During the period 9 th November 2016 to 10 th January 2017, more than 1100 searches and surveys were conducted by the ITD, apart from issuing more than 5100 verification notices in the cases of suspicious high value cash deposits or related activities. These actions led to seizure of valuables of more than Rs. 610 crore which includes cash of Rs. 513 crore. Seizure of cash in new currency notes was about Rs 110 crore. The undisclosed income detected in these actions was more than Rs. 5400 crore.

Whenever a complaint against a bank official(s) is received and any irregularities are found or observed on the part of Banks' official(s), the Banks initiate action as per their extant rules and commensurate punishment is awarded to the delinquent employees based on the seriousness of the wrongdoings as per Bank's disciplinary rules.

The  data  available  from  the  National  Crime  Records  Bureau  (NCRB)  indicates  that 1,57,818 numbers of Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) having a face-value of Rs.11,24,04,980 have been reported by States/UTs Police for the period 9.11.2016 to 14.7.2017.

******