It’s wrong to say that cash transactions in the primary residential market have reduced by at least 75-80 per cent since demonetisation of high-value currency was announced in late 2016.
Here is the reason: in last six months the Income Tax (IT)Department has detected more than Rs 2100 crore black money after raids on business groups in Gurugram, Mumbai, Pune, Baramati, Goa and Jaipur, Vapi, Sarigam Silvassa in Dadra and Nagar Haveli.
The department has detected “unaccounted” transactions of over Rs 1,000 crore after raiding an Ahmedabad-based media and real estate group, identified by officials as the Sambhaav Group. In a statement, the CBDT said searches were launched on September 8 at 20 premises of the group which is among the prominent business houses of Gujarat.
Similarly, IT detected a whopping Rs 600 crore black money after raids on two business groups in Gurugram. The department carried out search and seizure operations on 10 November on two groups, one engaged in real estate and hospitality and the other, a tools and equipment manufacturing group at Gurugram.
In a major case of tax evasion, the agency detected an unaccounted income of a whopping Rs 300 crore after it raided a Hyderabad-based company, engaged in real estate and waste management, among other businesses.
On the other hand, the department uncovered unaccounted income to the tune of Rs 184 crore in raids against two Mumbai-based real estate companies and also detected unaccounted transactions of over Rs 500 crore after I-T raided an Ahmedabad-based real estate developer and linked brokers as part of a tax evasion probe.
The IT team has also detected Rs 200 crore in black money in a search and seizure operation carried out on a prominent Kolkata-based group engaged in the manufacturing of cement and real estate business.
The agency has unearthed more than Rs 100 crore in unaccounted income during a search and seizure operation on a prominent group in Gujarat. The team also detected undisclosed income of Rs 75 crore after raiding three different real estate business groups based in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana’
In Rajasthan, over 33 premises belonging to a Congress leader and a real estate builder group has detected undisclosed income to the tune of nearly Rs 50 crore. The raids were carried out in Jaipur and Sriganganagar on October 28.
Last year, the Income Tax Department’s criminal investigation wing has identified 2000 Indian citizens who hold properties in Dubai but had failed to declare it in their IT returns and explain the source of funds used to purchase these properties. It has been observed in the past few years that payments have been received as properties in overseas countries purchased and transferred through shell corporations to hide ill-gotten money or to evade income tax.
The article was published on 21st November Print Edition, 2021