Lok Sabha Question No. 1042 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2017-07-21
Subject: Assessment of Demonetisation
Ministry: FINANCE
Asked by: ANANDRAO  ADSUL, DHARMENDRA YADAV, Shrirang Appa Barne, SHIVAJI ADHALRAO PATIL, PRITAM GOPINATH MUNDE

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMIC AFFAIRS LOK SABHA

## MINISTRY OF FINANCE

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.1042 TO BE ANSWERED ON 21 ST JULY, 2017/30 TH ASHADHA SAKA, 1939

## Assessment of Demonetisation

1042 . SHRI ANANDRAO ADSUL:

SHRI DHARMENDRA YADAV:

SHRI SHRIRANG APPA BARNE:

SHRI ADHALRAO PATIL SHIVAJIRAO:

DR. PRITAM GOPINATH MUNDE:

## QUESTION

Will the Minister of Finance be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government has made any assessment on the amount of black money deposited after demonetisation and the number of persons from whom black money was unearthed/seized, if so, the details thereof;
- (c) the extent to which the country's economy has been strengthened by implementing new currencies;
- (b) whether the new currency of Rs. 2000 and Rs. 500 cannot be copied          easily and if so, the details thereof;
- (d) whether digital payment had shown a decline after November-December, 2016, if so, the details thereof along with the number of digital payments made during the last six months; and
- (e) the extent to which the printing of new notes has come down along with the profit or loss accrued to the Government as a result of demonetisation?

## ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF FINANCE

## (SHRI ARJUN RAM MEGHWAL )

- (a) 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

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.

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.

(b) As per the analysis report on counterfeit notes received from Security Printing Presses, the security features in New Mahatma Gandhi Series Banknotes in denomination of Rs. 500 and Rs. 2000 have not been simulated as these are low quality fake notes.

(c) The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of a country, which is an important indicator of country's economic performance, depends on a number of factors including monetary factors (which is partly reflected by implementing of new currency). Therefore, it is not possible to isolate the impact of implementing new currencies on India's GDP.

(d) The overall volume as well as value have shown an undulating trend over the monthon-month from November 2016 to May 2017. However, there is a sharp growth in volume as well as value of transactions in the months of December 2016 and onwards till May 2017 as compared to those of November 2016.

(e) Currency notes are not issued with a profit/loss approach. The printing of new notes to replace the specified banknotes is in progress. The notes in circulation as on June 23, 2017 stood at Rs. 15,074.43 Billion as against Rs. 17,540.22 Billion as on October 28, 2016.

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