The Benami Property Transactions Act which came into full force on November 1, 2016 has started fetching tremendous outcomes in the wake of governments’ numerous initiatives to curb the generation of unaccounted wealth. Recently Tax authorities declared to have attached the properties worth a whopping 3,500 crores of rupees under the said Act including valuation of more than 2,900 crores in the form of immovable assets and properties. Various benami transaction cases have been identified and confirmed by the Adjudicating Authority which worths more than a hundred and fifty crores of rupees. Further a real estate company was identified to have been involved in a property transaction of around 50 acres of land worth over 100 crores of rupees.
It is noteworthy that these transactions have been identified as result of establishment of various dedicated Benami (Transaction) Prohibition Units across the country by directorates of tax department in the month of May last year. The new Act enumerates the provisions with respect to the provisional attachment and confiscation of the properties (both movable and immovable) involved in the impugned benami transaction. Further the act entails ease of prosecution of the various parties involved in such transactions i.e. benamidar, beneficial owner, abettor to the transaction. As a result, more than 900 of such cases have been identified and subsequent attachments have been made.
The Benami Property Transactions Act, 2016 has been proved to be of great significance in term of nation’s fight again the illegal and unaccounted wealth and it has already raised an alarm of concerns load and clear against those who are holding such unaccounted properties or have been involved in benami transaction in whatever capacities. Further Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s idea of linking property transactions with Unique Identification Number could go a long way in elimination the practise of benami transactions in a long run.
Courtesy/By: Lalit saraf
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13 Jan 2018
