Mumbai is financially smart to manage black money: I-T dept
With most seizures of cash being reported from places other than the financial capital of the country post demonetisation, Income Tax officials said that Mumbai is financially smart enough to handle black money. Although Mumbai is India's richest city, hardly 10% of the total cash seizures in the country in last 37 days have been registered in Mumbai, officials added.
In March this year, Knight Frank's Wealth Report-2016 said Mumbai has the maximum number of ultra-high-net worth individuals in India, followed by Delhi. Subsequently, in September this year, New World Wealth in its report said, the financial capital Mumbai homes to 45,000 millionaires and 28 billionaires is the wealthiest city in the country with total wealth of USD 820 billion, followed by Delhi and Bengaluru.Now, consider this. Data released by Income Tax (IT) Department reveals that it has netted about Rs 300 crore in cash with Rs 79 crore in new currency notes and an unaccounted income of almost Rs 3,000 crore since announcement of demonetisation.READ| Politicians offer to convert black money into white for 40% commission. An India Today exposeBut, despite being the richest city in India, Mumbai registered hardly 10 per cent of the total cash seizures in last 37 days. The highest seizure has been from Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Pune, Bangalore and other cities.ONLY A FRACTION SEIZED FROM MUMBAIOn Thursday evening, the Mumbai Police intercepted a car in Tilak Nagar area. Police recovered notes amounting Rs 10.10 crore stuffed in gunny bags from the car. The seizure included Rs 10 crore in scrapped denomination of Rs 500, and Rs 10 lakh in 2000 rupee banknotes. These currencies are under investigation to check the source and its genuineness.WATCHTwo detainees, who claimed to been employee of a cooperative bank in Pune districts, stated that "money was getting transferred from Mumbai branch to Pune branch due to security reasons." In another case, Rs 1.10 crore cash was seized from a Shiv Sena Corporator's car at Nallasopara in the outskirts of Mumbai during a search operation conducted by Thane IT officials.READ| Enforcement Directorate nabs Punjab businessman who used 85 bank accounts to launder cash'MUMBAI IS FINANCIALLY SMART'Speaking to Indiatoday.in, the IT officials in Mumbai said that they were perplexed to see that no big seizure of cash had been made from the city. "It is shocking for the department, the big cash seizures should have happened in Mumbai, but that is not happening", a senior IT official said.However, it's too early to conclude but the department is less satisfied with local tip-offs. Not openly, but the department has blamed the police for such a result saying "why we should bother attitude" among the policemen is killing the demonetisation action-plan.Another major factor is the financial literacy in Mumbai is quite high. Taxmen believe that people are financially knowledgeable, well-aware and smart enough to handle and manage the black money.READ| Black money crackdown: Rs 60 crore cash, 245 kg gold seized from 10 airports since demonetisation"Forget the corporate companies and traders in this city, even the common man knows various routes through which the black money could be converted into white - either via hawala, commission-based agents or using stock market tools", an IT department official said. FOCUS IS ON HUGE DEPOSITSEven the enforcement directorate (ED) is surprised at the outcome as no big information is coming their way. As of now, the Mumbai ED officials are investigating high valuation deposits cases worth Rs 20 crore, which were identified during verification process on nine bank branches, last week.READ| With huge cash and gold recovered since demonetisation, CISF ramps up new measures"Currently, we are totally dependable on specific information shared by FIUs (financial intelligence units)," a source from ED said with an assurance that in the coming days, the agency would start working on developing local informers for this purpose.