The government has received a number of cases of information relating to money held in foreign bank accounts, minister of state for finance SS Palanimanickam on Tuesday said. "The government has received a number of cases of information relating to remittances, payments and money held in 

 
foreign bank accounts etc under the provisions of the DTAA/TIEAs," Palanimanickam said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.
He was responding to a question on whether government has received details regarding 9,900 persons who have deposited black money in foreign banks and whether the government is investigating those persons.

Every reliable information, including information received from outside the country, Palanimanickam said "is verified according to the provision of Direct Tax laws and action is taken to being undisclosed amounts to taxation".

He said the tax department levies penalty in cases of concealment and in appropriate cases, initiates prosecution proceedings.

To another question on the amount of black money confiscated during the last two years, Palanimanickam said the Income Tax department has seized assets worth Rs. 905.61 crore and Rs. 774.98 crore in the 2011-12 and 2010-11 fiscal, respectively.

"The Income Tax department takes constant action against tax evasion including tax scrutiny, surveys, search and seizure under the Direct Tax laws," Palanimanickam said.

India currently has Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements (DTAA) with 82 countries and Tax Information Exchange Agreements (TIEA) with 17 jurisdictions.