The government’s email address for black money tipoffs has been flooded with 4,000 messages since Friday, when blackmoneyinfo@incometax. gov.in was made public. “We are getting a good response,” a finance ministry official told ET, Further the Finance Department also gets intelligence reports from various other module too.
That’s in addition to vast amounts of data flowing to tax authorities and other investigative agencies on a daily basis about deposits in bank accounts and other undeclared income through the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), part of the finance ministry. The government is already acting on the FIU information. “The system is capturing a lot of data,” the official said. “We are able to get daily reports on deposits made and that is the reason agencies have been able to carry out focused action.”
The allegations contained in the emails will boost the government’s ongoing efforts to root out black money. Income tax and enforcement directorate officials have been conducting raids across the country unearthing old and new currency apart from jewellery and other high-value items. Several bank officials have also been detained, suspended or sacked for swapping old notes with new without authorisation. The information received relates to deposits in Jan Dhan and urban cooperative bank accounts, loan repayments, credit card payments, electronic transfers, withdrawals, among others.
Information also poured in regarding high-value purchases including jewellery, luxury goods and realty. Companies showing high cash balances could also come under the taxman’s radar.
Given the amount of data the government has, the belief that all money deposited in banks has been converted into legitimate wealth may be misplaced as banks have been taking note of unusual deposits and alerting authorities.