The Income-tax Department (ITD) takes appropriate action against black money which is an on-going process.  Such action under the Direct Tax laws includes searches, surveys, enquiries, assessment of income, levy of penalties and filing of prosecution complaints before criminal courts, wherever applicable.

Moreover, recognizing the limitations of the Income-tax Act, 1961 etc. in dealing with black money stashed abroad, the Government of India enacted a comprehensive and a more stringent new law namely ‘The Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015’ that has come into force w.e.f. 01.07.2015. It provides for separate taxation of undisclosed foreign income and assets. Most importantly, apart from providing more stringent provisions for penalty and prosecution, for the first time, this law has included the offence of wilful attempt to evade tax etc. in relation to undisclosed foreign income/assets as a Scheduled Offence under the Prevention of Money-laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA).

The details of prosecution proceedings initiated by the ITD under the relevant provisions of the Income Tax Act, 1961, during the last three F.Y.s are as under:-

Financial Year	No. of cases in which prosecution complaints filed	Cases compounded	No. of persons convicted
1	2	4	5
2015-16	552	1019	28
2016-17	1252	1208	16
2017-18	4527	1621	68

The details of search & seizure and surveys conducted by the Income Tax Department in the last three F.Y.s are as under:

Search and seizure:

Financial Year	Number of groups searched	Total assets seized (In Rs. crore)	Undisclosed income admitted u/s 132(4) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 [in Rs. crore]
2015-16	447	712.32	11226
2016-17	1152	1469.62	15497
2017-18*	581	997.17	15755

*Figures are provisional

Surveys:

Financial Year	No. of surveys conducted	Undisclosed income detected (in Rs. crore)
2015-16	4428	9700
2016-17	12520	13690
2017-18	13547	9638

This was stated by Shri Shiv Pratap Shukla, Minister of State for Finance in written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha.

Undisclosed foreign income and assets now face separate taxation and PMLA scheduled offence designation with stricter penalties. The Income tax Department pursues black money via searches, surveys, assessments, penalties and prosecutions. The Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) Act, 2015 imposes separate taxation on undisclosed foreign income/assets, strengthens penalties and prosecution, and treats wilful tax evasion concerning such assets as a scheduled offence under the Prevention of Money laundering framework. Yearwise enforcement data for 2015-16 to 2017-18 on prosecutions, search and seizure outcomes and surveys are reported to demonstrate enforcement activity.