The move to withdraw high-value currency notes in November last year has helped the income tax department unearth Rs 25,000 cr of undisclosed income as of October this year, the finance ministry said.
Out of this, Rs 15,761 cr was unearthed by searches and raids, while the remaining was detected using ‘surveys’, the ministry said.
The numbers include recoveries made in two phases — first from November last year to March this year and the second from April this year to October this year.
During the 13 months, the Income Tax department conducted a total of 1,175 searches and raids and close to 11,400 ‘surveys’.
RAIDS
The department had more success in its raids conducted in the current financial year compared to those it conducted in the immediate aftermath of demonetization.
For example, it conducted 900 raids in the five months from November last year to March this year. These raids uncovered 7,961 cr of undeclared assets and resulted in the seizure of over Rs 900 cr.
In comparison, the department conducted only 275 raids and searches in the seven months from April 2017 to October 2017, but was able to unearth Rs 7,800 cr of undisclosed income via these raids.
SURVEYS
In addition to searches and raids, the authorities have been using information technology to unearth undeclared income by checking the bank deposit details of citizens.
These surveys unearthed over Rs 9,000 cr. Unlike searches and raids, the number of surveys has fallen drastically this year.
While a total of 8,239 surveys were carried out in the first five months since demonetization, only 3,188 surveys were done in the seven months after that.
PRINTING
The government also revealed that the cost of printing the new notes was around Rs 3 per unit.
A total of 1,700 crore pieces of 500-rupee notes have been printed so far since demonetization at a cost of around Rs 5,000 cr. With this, the total number of 500-rupee notes printed since demonetization is equal to the total number of such notes in circulation before the event.
Another 365 cr notes of 2000-rupee denomination have been printed at a cost of Rs 1,293 cr, taking the total cost of printing to almost Rs 6,300 cr. Before demonetization, there were about 670 cr notes of 1000-rupee denomination in circulation.
As part of demonetization, the government received old bank notes of total value of Rs 15.28 lakh cr, or about 99% of the existing notes in circulation at the time.