Income Tax Department officials found unaccounted for gold stocks worth more than Rs 42 crore after conducting raids at jewellery stores across the country and have asked the shops to submit details of their sales, according to The Times of India. In addition to I-T officials, authorities of the Directorate General of Central Excise Intelligence and Enforcement Directorate have already raided 600 big jewellers and bullion traders to seek information on the gold they have since November 7.

Of the total quantity of gold recovered, stock worth Rs 22 crore was seized from bullion traders and jewellers in Delhi’s Chandani Chowk and Karol Bagh areas, while the remaining was recovered from jewellers in Chandigarh, Jalandhar and Ludhiana. Many of these bullion traders issued bills for less than Rs 2 lakh to the clients, which exempted them from being required to furnish their PAN details, reported The Times of India.

Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia told PTI, “Action will be taken against those jewellers who failed to take PAN numbers from such buyers. The cash deposits of the jewellers will be scrutinised against the sales made, regardless of whether they have the PAN number of the buyer.” Jewellers in cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Bhopal, Vijaywada, Nashik and Lucknow are under the excise officials’ radar.

The crackdown order came from the Union Finance Ministry, which also asked revenue intelligence agencies to track demonetised currency notes. Income Tax officials had seized demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes worth Rs 50 lakh from a passenger at the Delhi airport.

On November 8, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced that the country was doing away with Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes in an effort to weed out corruption and black money, and in turn, poverty and terrorism. Since the announcement, banks and ATMs have had people waiting in serpentine queues to exchange their old notes for the new Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 ones issued by the government.