SIT on black money for capping cash at home

Seized cash should be deposited in the consolidated fund in India

A special investigation team on black money has proposed a cap on keeping cash at home. They suggested that seized unaccounted cash by law and enforcement agencies be deposited in the consolidated fund of India. The proposed measures aims to bring norms to curb illegal and unaccounted cash. It is due to the fact that the unaccounted wealth is being held as cash. The law enforcement agency said that proper cash management can only succeed only if there is a limitation on cash holdings.

At present, federal agencies deposit unaccounted cash seized to the dedicated bank account of respective agency with state bank of India where challan has name and permanent account number of assesses in whose name the amount gets deposited. In the recent meeting held at Ahmadabad, this recommendation had made by the panel of retired judges and bureaucrats with the central agencies including income- tax, Directorate of revenue intelligence etc.

The panel raised concern s over cash economy and malpractices like bribe during seizure of unaccounted cash. In the first full financial year after demonetization (FY18), 67.91 per cent of unaccounted cash was made up of 2,000 Rs notes and it was bit lower at 65.93 per cent in FY 19. In 2017, the government had introduced a cash transaction limit of 2 lakh per day. There was no limitation on cash holding. The SIT was constituted to ensure that the government uncovers which Indians have hidden untaxed money in India and foreign bank accounts.