Finance Ministry detects over Rs 2,150 crore in tax evasion

Finance Ministry detects over Rs 2,150 crore in tax evasion
Efforts by the Finance Ministry to check revenue leakage have resulted in a detection of
of over Rs 2,158 crore in direct and indirecttaxes evasion in the last quarter of 2012‐13.
The detection came through a unique initiative of online monitoring system of
suspicioustransactions, named 'Virtual Office', which wasset up by the ministry earlier
this year for real‐time coordination among revenue intelligence agencies and
dissemination of variousinputs pertaining tomovement ofillegalfunds.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes(CBDT) has detected unaccounted income and assets
of Rs 1,408 crore using this platform.
The Directorate General of Central Excise Intelligence (DGCEI) and Directorate General
of Revenue Intelligence (DGRI), two leading agencies under the Central Board of Excise
and Custom(CBEC), have together detected indirecttax evasion of atleast Rs 750 crore,
according to an official document.
These agencies, which are part of the Virtual Office programme, detected the evasion
after following up the leadsin form of Suspicious Transaction Reports(STRs) passed on
to them by Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), an agency tasked with analysing and
disseminating information relating to dubiousfinancial exchanges.
BothDGCEI andDGRI have also effected a recovery of Rs 46.71 crore, on the basis ofthe
STRs generated by the FIU, through Virtual Office. The CBDT hasseized assets worth Rs
21 crore,the documentsaid.
An STR is a transaction of Rs 10 lakh and above believed to be proceeds of crimes
including drug trafficking and blackmoney.
The Virtual Office was set up in January to monitor the feedback on the STRs
disseminated by FIU‐Ind, which is also providing administrative supportto it.
(Financial Express)