After a futile attempt to curb black money through demonetization, now another attempt is made to curb black money but through the provisions of the anti-Benami Act. The Income Tax Department started scanning of all property registrations of above Rs 30 lakh to trace illegal assets and action against these illicit asset holders. Central Board of Direct Taxes also confirmed on investigating the shell companies and their directors whose operations were recently “debarred” by the government.
The I-T department remarked, “We will destroy all instruments that are used to convert black money into white. This also includes shell companies. Also, the department is checking the income tax profiles of all properties which have a registry value of over Rs 30 lakh. We get this information under the law. If these profiles are found suspicious or incorrect, action will be taken under the Benami Act”.
After Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced demonetization on November 8 last year, the I-T department explicitly warned people against depositing their unaccounted banknotes in accounts maintained by someone else.Such an act would attract criminal charges under the Benami Property Transactions Act t, 1988, as per the I-T dept. And, as per the law it attracs for a maximum punishment of seven years in jail and a fine.
However people say, I-T dept should do enough home work and target the people with black money instead of targetting all people with properties having registered value more than 30 lakhs. Because during demonetization, it was the common man who suffered a lot while the real culprits had the laugh as they could convert their black money to white. Anyway, tackling the issue of black money is a long drawn process and it needs consistent efforts from the government and officals. We have to wait and see how the consequences of this move will be.