'Total halt' in smuggling of fake notes, finmin tells PAC

The finance ministry on Friday informed a parliamentary committee that smuggling of fake currency has totally stopped post demonetisation and the tax department has seized Rs 515 crore in cash, including Rs 114 crore of new currency notes, up to January 10.

According to sources, in its response to the Public Accounts Committee over queries on demonetisation, the finance ministry said it has also detected undisclosed income of Rs 4,172 crore in search and seizure operations between November 9 and December 28, 2016.

Banning of 500 and 1000 rupee notes was intended to curb terror financing and as per intelligence reports, the smuggling of fake notes has come to a "total halt", the finance ministry said.

The tax department has taken 980 intrusive actions which include search and seizure operations since November 8.

The purpose of demonetisation, the ministry said, was to put an end to subversive activities such as espionage, smuggling of arms and other contrabands into India, besides eliminating black money.

The Public Accounts Committee, headed by Congress leader K V Thomas, on Friday  called key secretaries from the finance ministry, including revenue secretary Hasmukh Adhia and Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das, to discuss the implications of monetary policy and also demonetisation.

During the meeting, Thomas asked the ministry officials about the amount of old currency notes that have come back into the banking system post demonetisation.

The officials are believed to have informed the PAC that the RBI is in the process of counting the notes and will come out with a figure in some time.

Between November 9, 2016, and January 10, 2017, Rs 515.28 crore has been seized in cash by the I-T department of which Rs 114.33 crore was in new currency notes and the balance of Rs 400.95 crore was in now-defunct notes.

The maximum seizure was made in Chennai totalling Rs 153.88 crore, followed by Delhi (Rs 72.43 crore), Bangalore (Rs 34.84 crore).

Following the demonetisation announcement on November 8, 2016, the tax department sent more than 5,000 notices to various people based on specific intelligence inputs.