I-T dept refers 400 corruption, laundering cases to ED, CBI

NEW DELHI: The income tax department has referred at least 400 cases of corruption and money laundering to the Enforcement Directorate and the CBI for further probe and attachment of the “proceeds of crime“.

On Friday , Central Board of Direct Taxes chairman Sushil Chandra, in a presentation before members of the parliamentary consultative committee on finance, said the government had entered into collaboration with 148 countries for exchange of information related to tax matters.

Later, briefing the members, FM Arun Jaitley said the I-T department's drive against black money had resulted in the seizure of more than Rs 600 crore, of which Rs 513 crore was in cash. He said undisclosed income of Rs 5,400 crore was detected in the 1,100 follow-up searches conducted by the department after demonetisation.

Members of the committee urged the FM to give more incentives to honest taxpayers by further lowering tax slabs, and appreciated the move to bring down the tax rate from 10% to 5% for those in the income bracket of Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 5 lakh a year.

To promote digital payment, the members suggested that the government consider reducing the banking transaction charge. Those who attended the meeting included several MPs, besides the FM, MoS finance S P Shukla, chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian, the revenue secretary , the finance secretary and the CBDT chairman.