The government has unearthed over Rs 1.37 lakh crore of evaded tax in the last three years and has conducted 23,064 searches and surveys in the period.
This includes Rs 69,434 crore detected as income tax, Rs 11,405 crore in evaded customs duties, Rs 13,952 crore of evaded central excise duty and Rs 42,727 crore as evaded service tax.
“Simultaneously, criminal prosecutions were launched in 2,814 cases,” the Finance Ministry said on Friday, adding that the Enforcement Directorate has also registered 519 cases of money laundering.
Cracking down on shell companies, income tax investigations detected over 1,155 shell companies and entities used as conduits by over 22,000 beneficiaries. “The amount involved in non-genuine transactions of such beneficiaries was more than Rs 13,300 crore,” it said.
The Finance Ministry warned that the “relentless crusade against black money would be further intensified in the coming days and tax evaders and money launderers would have to pay a heavy cost for their deviant behaviour.