The government has said “no specific instance” of flow of terror funds into the real estate sector has come to its notice. “As per the current assessment of revenue intelligence agencies…no specific instance of flow of terror funds into the real estate sector has been found,” Minister of State for Finance S S Palanimanickam said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha. However, he said, “investigations by the Income Tax Department reveal unaccounted or undisclosed income or assets in various sectors of the economy, including real estate.”
The intelligence agencies, which carried out the assessment, include Investigation Directorates of Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Directorate General of Central Excise Intelligence and Directorate of Enforcement. To another query, the Minister said there no information was available as regards distortion of real estate due to presence of terror-funds or black money in the real estate sector.
Palanimanickam further said the I-T Department takes several punitive and deterrent steps to unearth unaccounted money and curb tax evasion. These include scrutiny of tax returns; surveys, search and seizure actions; imposition of penalty; and launching of prosecution in appropriate cases, he said. The Minister said information technology is used in a “systematic” way for collection and collation of information to take anti-evasion action against tax evaders. The investigation wing of the CBDT probes cases whenever any credible information about evasion of direct taxes is received.
