₹70,000 crore in black money detected: SC-appointed SIT

Justice (retd) Arijit Pasayat, deputy chairman of the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigating Team (SIT) on black money, on Thursday disclosed that so far around ₹70,000 crore had been detected in black money, including over ₹16,000 crore by Indians stashing funds abroad.

After a meeting with officers of several government agencies dealing with economic and financial affairs here, Justice Pasayat said the SIT would submit its sixth interim report to the Supreme Court in the first week of April.

He said the SIT during the past two years had made several recommendations through its interim reports to the apex court to check the generation and tap the black money at source. “While most of our recommendations have been accepted by the government, some are under active consideration”, he said.

“One of our proposals, on cash holding of ₹15 lakh or above to be presumed as undisclosed, is under serious consideration of the Central government”, Justice Pasayat said, adding that on our recommendation, the government has already declared that cash transaction beyond ₹3 lakh to be treated as illegal and punishable under law.