I-T dept conducts surveys at bitcoin exchanges across India

The Income Tax Department has conducted survey operations at major bitcoin exchanges across the country on suspicion of alleged tax evasion. Official sources said the department detected several lakh entries of high-net-worth individuals (HNIs) in their databases.

The operations that held at nine major exchanges in Delhi, Ghaziabad, Gurugram, Pune, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Kochi yesterday. Entries of HNIs suggest that they were trading on these



exchanges.

The trigger for the action is understood to be the huge spike being registered in the value of the bitcoins and other virtual currencies in the recent past in the country.A huge amount of black money converted into white, post demonetisation, by using bitcoins is also under the scanner of the department. Bitcoin, a virtual currency, is not regulated in the country and its circulation has been a cause for concern among central bankers around the world.