Black Money Worth Rs. 280 Cr Seized From AP, TS

The Income Tax department today said that unaccountable wealth worth nearly Rs. 280 crores was recovered from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana since the demonetization of the 500 and 1,000 bills of the currency notes.

Speaking at a conference held at the Income Tax office in Masab Tank to discuss the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana scheme, Director General of I-T (Investigation) Neena Nigam said, "While Rs. 280 crores worth undisclosed wealth has been recovered from across the two states post November 8, Rs. 11 crores in old notes and Rs. 4.2 crores worth in gold has been seized, of which, the new denominations accounted for Rs. 1.9 crores."

Officials added that the total undisclosed income recovered since April 1, this year, stood at Rs. 1,346 crores.

Elaborating on the PMGKY, an amnesty scheme designed for black money holders, Chief Commissioner of Income Tax Sushil Kumar said, "The demonetization policy has helped plug loopholes in I-T returns. Under the PMGKY scheme, black money holders have time till March 31, 2017, to file a declaration form and disclose any undisclosed amount while paying a 50% tax as penalty and depositing 25% of the amount in a non-interest four-year bond of the RBI."

"Failure to submit a prescribed declaration form, which can be downloaded online, will result in a steeper 60% tax penalty, with a 15% surcharge," said Kumar.

He added that while the scheme was a chance for black money holders to come clean, money generated through criminal activities would not fall under the scheme.