"Yes, it has yielded results. We have identified large number of tax payers. I can't disclose specific cases. We have detected a case in which a person operated from 200 accounts," Chidambaram told the annual economic editors conference in New Delhi.

Apart from keeping a track on black money, he said BCTT also garnered some revenue to the government. Chidambaram also said government was committed to its budget promise on simplying tax laws and a bill was expected to be drawn up early next year.

On proposed rationalisation of duties on petroleum products, he said a panel headed by Rangarajan was looking into it and government will consider the proposals when the panel submits its report.

Regarding a suggestion to replace Income Tax by a transaction tax, Chidambaram said it was an old suggestion but it cannot be implemented as there was no way to track all transactions.

"Unless we have a system to track all transaction, we cannot replace Income Tax with a Transaction Tax," he said.

On a query to withdraw tax exemption to tribals particularly North East, he said "tribals are exempted from income tax for historical reasons. There is no proposal to withdraw it."

Chidambaram did not subscribe to the idea that tax benefits were withdrawn from savings instruments leading to a fall in savings rate, saying that on the contrary, the Section 80C now offers savings upto Rs 1 lakh.

In his last budget, the finance minister had announced a slew of tax reforms and imposed two new taxes - BCTT and fringe benefit tax.

BCTT is helping the tax department in keeping a trail on black money. The department recently decided to track cash withdrawal of slightly less than Rs 25,000 from non-saving accounts of banks on a single day.

The move comes after tax departments received reports that some black money generators avoid giving any clue to the authorities by not falling under the net of BCTT by withdrawing slightly less than Rs 25,000 from banks on a single day.

The department was investigating only those bank branches where the number of such transactions have shot up unexpectedly recently.

BCTT has already started yielding results with 10 parties involved in Hawala business, were nabbed for black money generation through large withdrawals of cash from banks.

The new tax has enabled the tax department to trap seven parties involved in issuing bogus bills to flour mills in Delhi to evade tax.

Three other parties, who have been nabbed, were helping traders from other parts of the country to convert their drafts into cash for wholesale purchases in Delhi.