Black money more inside country than abroad: SIT member

Bhubaneswar, Oct 17: The volume of black money stashed in the country is much more than that kept abroad, vice-chairman of Special Investigation Team (SIT) Justice (retd) Arijit Pasayat said here today.

"The volume of black money stashed in India is much more than it is now in the foreign countries. If the generation of black money is stopped, its flow to the foreign countries will be substantially reduced," Pasayat, who held a high level meeting with state and central government officials at Cuttack, said.

Expressing concern over the alleged under-the-table transactions by charitable bodies and educational institutions, he said, "There are allegations about huge transactions of money being made under the table by some charitable trusts and educational institutions which are of serious concern.

These allegations are under the scrutiny of the Income Tax department and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) who have taken steps in some cases." On chitfund and mining scams, the former Supreme Court judge said CBI, ED and Income Tax department are probing them. "With regard to mining scam, SIT is currently probing Income Tax and money laundering aspects.

We are gradually moving ahead with our investigation. We have started investigation in Odisha, Goa, Bengaluru where we have received positive responses," he added.

Pasayat has also suggested Odisha government to go for certain modification in the H1 form, said director of mines Deepak Mohanth, who attended the meeting. Senior officials of the Crime Branch, CBI, Central Board of Direct Taxes, Income Tax and Commercial Tax attended the meeting.

PTI