CBDT Aims To Uncover ₹2.4 Lakh Crore In Undisclosed Income With Aggressive Tax Evasion Crackdown

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has cracked the whip on Black Money setting new targets for the Income Tax (IT) department to boost collections. The tax board in a major move to combat black money and tax evasion has instructed the IT field formations to implement an aggressive, time-bound strategy aimed at expanding the tax net.

The directives to all the taxmen is plan a major search and seizure operation by July 31 in each zone and region with additional operations between August and March 2026 in each jurisdiction to detect tax evasions. The tax board anticipates uncovering undisclosed income worth an estimated Rs 2.4 lakh crore during the current financial year.

The directive to the taxmen has emphasised that 60 per cent of the overall targets should be achieved through intrusive actions such as searches and raids. The remaining 40 per cent should come from non-intrusive methods like data analysis and financial intelligence gathering.

“the Investigation Wing of the Income Tax Department has been tasked with preparing targeted, data-driven reports focused on sectors manufacturing, services, mining, liquor trade, international trade, hawala operations, healthcare, scrap dealing, and various ancillary or loosely regulated industries having high tax evasion risks,” said a senior tax official adding that blind spots would be identified to bring hidden economic activities into the formal tax system and strengthen revenue collection.

The central tax board has highlighted the lack of transparency in informal economic activities and asked for an urgent need to thoroughly study sectors with significant volumes of unreported or under-reported transactions to design sector-specific strategies that promote formalisation and boost compliance.

The direct tax collection marked a 17% increased compared to last year and the latest figures released by the Finance Ministry revealed a provisional net direct tax collections for the fiscal year 2024–25 at Rs 11,82,875 crore surpassed expectations.

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