In a written reply to Lok Sabha today, union finance minister Arun Jaitley talked about the efforts of finance ministry in order to achieve government’s objective post demonetization. The written reply stated that there have been over 1100 searches and surveys conducted along with 5100 notices served to verify the high-value cash deposits. The searches resulted in a seizure of assets worth INR 610 crores, out of which, over INR 513 crores were in cash. The data provided, covers the period from November 09, 2016 to January 10, 2017.
The reply from finance minister came in a response to a query on how successful the government has been in achieving its objecting since the note ban.
The statement further stated that over INR 110 crores out of the total seized, have been in the new notes of INR 500 and 2000. Also, the total undisclosed income which has been detected through raids and investigation on the cash deposits in accounts is well over INR 5400 crores.
Arun Jaitley further stated that demonetization will help make economy better, bigger, transparent and real. Also, the move will check black money, terror funding and fake currency.
Among the other initiatives taken to curb black money and check corruption, Jaitley added that a special investigation team (SIT) has been formed to investigate the suspicious cases of deposits or undeclared income. Imposing of Tax Act 2015, Amendment of Benami Transactions Act and enactment of comprehensive law have been other measures taken in such regard.
In a reply to an another question, finance minister added that post demonetization, there has been an increase in the number of cash deposits in bank accounts opened under Jan Dhan Yojna and such accounts with high value transactions are also under the investigation radar.