By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, MAR 16, 2013: WHILE answering a question in the Lok Sabha yesterday, the MoS(R) said that the searches conducted by the Income Tax Department during F.Ys 2009-10, 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13 (up to December, 2012), unexplained assets of about Rs. 963.50 crore, Rs 774.98 crore, Rs. 905.60 crore and Rs 453.54 crore, respectively were seized.

Seizure of unexplained assets itself does not lead to launching of prosecution under the Income-tax Act, 1961. Evidences gathered during the course of search and seizure actions including the unexplained assets seized, as also during the post-search enquiries are used, inter alia, for making assessment of total income following the quasi-judicial process prescribed in the Act. Chapter XXII of the Act provides for offences and prosecutions. Prosecutions are launched in appropriate cases on satisfaction of the conditions prescribed in the Act.

Out of 1548 prosecution cases decided during the during F.Ys 2009-10, 2010-11, 2011-12, the number of convictions and cases compounded together accounts for 868 which indicates a fairly good success rate in respect of prosecutions under the Act. With a view to make further improvements in this regard, various measures have been taken including introduction of enabling provisions for Special Courts and Special Public Prosecutors by the Finance Act, 2012.

Answering another question the MoS(R) stated that the Government has launched drive against fake Permanent Account Number (PAN) cards. As a continuous process, in order to know the genuineness of Know Your Customer (KYC) documents on Proof of Identity (POI) and Proof of Address (POA), third party field verification is conducted after allotment of PAN. The information of failed KYC verification is made available to field formations of Department to mark the event in respect of PAN as ‘FAKE' through Assessee Information System (AIS) application software.

Also, check on duplicate allotment of PANs to existing PAN allottees is an inbuilt feature of PAN allotment software process which works as a continuous process.

The following is the number of PAN marked as fake:

Of the total PAN allotment, 96.35% PAN allotments are under the category of “Individual” applicants and maximum fake/duplicates are also observed under individual category. For uniquely identifying the PAN allotted and to overcome the problems of fake PANs, issue of more than one PAN to an individual and to clean up the PAN database duplicates, capturing of Aadhaar in revised PAN application from 49A has been started on voluntary basis. 3,04,452 unique Aadhaar numbers have been seeded/incorporated into PAN database. For KYC strengthening, the format of certificate of Identity/Address issued by MP/MLA/Municipal Counselor /Gazetted officer has been prescribed.