An RTI reply has revealed that crores of income is suppressed by individuals across the nation to evade tax, which apparently leads to massive losses to the exchequer. The information supplied by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) was based on surveys carried out in the last 10 years by its investigation-III branch.
It said the undisclosed income of Rs. 90,390.33 crore was detected in the financial year 2013-14 through 5,327 surveys carried out by the CBDT, which was highest in the last decade. In 2019-20, an amount of Rs. 22,243.56 crore wasn’t disclosed by taxpayers to the department. Even in the Covid-19 pandemic last year, the CBDT carried out 367 surveys where evasion of Rs. 4,824.52 crore tax was detected.