NEW DELHI: Today is the last day you can use your old Rs 500 notes to pay for exempted services. As income tax officials continue to crackdown on money laundering, unearthing crores of rupees in new notes, the government further tightened the screws in an attempt to choke the circulation of black money. The tax department also warned of penal action against those filing ‘drastically’ revised income tax returns by including bank deposits made after demonetisation. The move comes amidst reports of people misusing the provision of filing a revised return to disclose black money and escape by paying a 30 per cent tax instead of 50 per cent they are mandated to pay.
The income tax sleuths, meanwhile, unearthed black money amounting crores of rupees across the country, a huge chunk of which was in new notes. The officials seized a total of Rs 3.57 crore in cash from Karnataka and Goa, including Rs 2.93 in brand new notes. Interestingly, a part of that money recovered from a flat in Bengaluru was guarded by an old woman and two dogs.
The woman, according to the officials, refused to tie the dogs which were restricting their entry. Finally, with the help of locals and police officers, they managed to enter the apartment. In another haul, probably the biggest on Wednesday, Delhi police recovered about Rs 3.25 crore in banned notes from five persons staying in a hotel. The men were later found to be carriers of the cash. In nearby Chandigarh, ED seized about Rs 2.2 crore from the premises of a cloth trader based on a tipoff about a hawala network. A popular Delhi-based jewellery store is also under the tax lens for a whopping sale of gold on the day demonetisation was announced. According to sources, the store sold a whopping 50 kg of gold on Nov 8, compared to a mere 0.8 kg on the previous day.
A good volume of money was also seized by the CISF since demonetisation. According to data released on Wednesday, the force has seized Rs 70 crore in cash and 170 kg of gold from airports since November 8.