Government agencies fear that terror funds are flowing into the real estate sector, apart from a substantial part of the black money generated within the country finding its way into the housing industry.
An assessment prepared by revenue intelligence agencies and reviewed by the finance minister recently reveals that the highest component of undisclosed money detected by the income tax department was from the real estate sector.
Officials suspect that a part of this could be funding terror other than black money that industrialists and businessmen invest in this sector. Search and seizure operations by the income tax department for nine months, between April and December 2011, resulted in seizure of nearly Rs 400 crore in cash and other assets.
This was in addition to disclosure of more than Rs 3,200 crore made by the accused in these cases.
Other sectors that have been found generating black money include the manufacturing and mining sectors, educational institutions, hospitals and pharmaceutical industries.
The common modus operandi adopted by tax evaders include cash transactions, manipulation of records and inflating expenditure through bogus bills.
Sources don’t rule out money going out of the country through hawala transactions and have suggested increased surveillance on money transfer agencies operating in the country.
It has been suggested that to curb unaccounted money flowing through these channels, the government can enforce more stringent ‘know your customer’ guidelines by making it mandatory for money transfer agencies to take a photograph of the beneficiaries.