Modi's benami free India: How IT dept has stepped up the heat

In the wake of the new rules coming into force, people are finding it very hard to make benami transactions.

In the drive by the Narendra Modi government against black-money, a total of Rs 600 crore has been seized by the Income Tax department in the past six months. The raids and seizures were conducted under the provisions of of the benami prohibition law.

The law had been amended to give officials the power to take over properties purchased in fake or benami names. Following the roll out of the law, the tax officials have discovered 400 benami transactions in 240 cases.

The benami prohibition law was first enacted 1988 back but was not implemented for over 28 years because of technical problems in the law. The law also prescribes a punishment of 7 years for those held guilty.

The government has also setup 24 dedicated Benami Prohibition Units under the tax department across the country to intensify the scrutiny on land transfers and big purchases.

In the wake of the new rules coming into force, people are finding it very hard to make benami transactions. The rules state require buyers and sellers of land to provide their Aadhaar numbers. Officials are now suggesting that a similar rule for the PAN card would also help a great deal.

Stepping up the heat:

The IT officials are now on overdrive mode to discover benami properties and transactions. The IT had found a driver with land worth Rs. 7.7 crore in Madhya Pradesh' Jabalpur. In addition to this the officials also found that a person in Mumbai was buying properties in the name of shell companies.

According to the IT department immovable properties valued at 530 crores were attached in 40 cases alone. In these cases, the properties were located in Kolkata, Mumbai, Delhi, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.

Further officials also say that searches have been carried out at locations linked to
10 "senior government officials" in the last one month to "unearth black money earned through corrupt practices.

Over 100 tax officials carried out searches at premises of senior Uttar Pradesh officials including Vimal Kumar Sharma, the additional chief of the Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority and Mamta Sharma, regional transport officer in western Uttar Pradesh's Meerut.

While the officials were not spared the IT heat also fell upon Misa Bharti, Rajya Sabha MP and daughter of Lalu Prasad Yadav. The department has directed her to appear before it and explain their links to some properties suspected to be benami in nature.

OneIndia News