The Income tax department is conducting investigations into over 6,300 frozen demat accounts, which had shares worth Rs 6,709 crore in December last year.
Tax department is investigating into 6,385 frozen demat accounts which had balances in excess of Rs 10 lakh as on December 2008, Minister of State for Finance S S Palanimanickam said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.
The demat accounts had shares worth more than Rs 16,230 crore when they were frozen, he informed.
"The details have been forwarded to the respective Investigation Directorates for taking necessary action in accordance with the provisions...," the Minister added.
Demat accounts are required for trading in the stock exchanges. Without a demat account no trading can be done.
Meanwhile, to another question in the Lok Sabha, the Minister informed that Securities Transaction Tax (STT) collection at Rs 5,409 crore in the last fiscal declined due to an economic downturn during the year. The collections are way lower than Rs 8,557 crore collected in 2007-08.
