Lone property seized in Pune region since Nov 2016.

Pune: The Income Tax (I-T) department, Pune, has attached benami property of just Rs 1.11 crore since the inception of the Benami Property (Prohibition) Amendment Act, 2016, which came into effect on November 1, 2016.

The Directorate General of Income Tax (investigation) has temporarily seized Rs 813 crore in 233 cases in 14 regions of the country so far from November 1, 2016 to June 20, 2017, under this Act. 

A ‘Benami property’ includes deposited funds, jewellery, real estate and bank accounts.

Sources from the I-T department said, “In Pune, two transactions were detected. Of these, one property was attached under this Act. The department has seized Rs 1.11 crore from a person associated with the real estate sector.”

The list of seized benami properties has been released by the Ministry of Finance. Kolkata tops the list with 26 transactions, valued at Rs 477.11 crore. All of these properties have been attached. Similarly,  in Mumbai, the department has detected 43 transactions, of these 42 properties worth Rs 91.74 crore have been attached. Mumbai is ranked third in the list.

A majority of the cases have been reported from Patna, but the city is at the bottom of the list in terms of the value of seized property. Kolkata has over 58 per cent of the total assets attached in the country. In Lucknow, 13 anonymous transactions were detected under the Act but no property was attached. In Patna, attachment happened in 19 cases worth Rs 7 lakh.