The early 2010s were defined by a run of large scandals and a public sense that leakage was structural rather than incidental. Subsidies passed through layers of intermediaries; a 1988 Benami law existed but had never been operationalised; there was no dedicated statute for undisclosed foreign assets; and income-tax assessment depended on face-to-face discretion.
Anti-Corruption & Black Money
Anti-Corruption & Black Money
A decade of legal and technological reform attacked corruption at its plumbing rather than its symptoms. The Black Money Act (2015) and a revived Benami law (2016) created enforceable statutes where none had worked before. Over 2.25 lakh shell companies were struck off. Faceless tax assessment removed the officer-taxpayer interface. And Direct Benefit Transfer — now spanning 320 schemes — routed subsidies straight to bank accounts; the DBT Mission estimates that DBT and related reforms saved about ₹5.14 lakh crore up to March 2025. This timeline traces those reforms.
₹5.14 L cr
Estimated DBT savings (to Mar 2025)
320
Schemes on DBT
2.25 lakh
Shell companies struck off
Estimated DBT savings (to March 2025)
2015
Black Money Act
The Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) Act creates a dedicated law for offshore assets, with a compliance window followed by prosecution.
2016
Benami law given teeth
2017
Shell companies struck off
2018
Fugitive Economic Offenders Act
2021
Faceless assessment and appeals
2025
DBT savings estimated at ₹5.14 lakh crore
2015
1milestones
20152025
Latest
Black Money Act
The Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) Act creates a dedicated law for offshore assets, with a compliance window followed by prosecution.
Why it matters Leakage was the tax the poor paid twice — once in taxes, once in the share of their entitlement that never arrived. Removing intermediaries from the subsidy chain, and duplicate and ghost names from the rolls, means the money reaches the person it was voted for. Faceless processes remove the discretion that made rent-seeking possible.
- DBT covers 320 schemes; the DBT Mission estimates savings of about ₹5.14 lakh crore from DBT and related reforms up to March 2025.
- Black Money Act (2015) and the operationalised Benami Act (2016) made confiscation possible.
- Over 2.25 lakh shell companies deregistered from 2017 onward.
- Faceless assessment and appeals removed the taxpayer-officer interface from income tax.
- The Fugitive Economic Offenders Act (2018) allows confiscation of absconders' Indian assets.
History
Notable milestone
Direct Benefit Transfer became the single biggest anti-leakage instrument. Now spanning 320 schemes across 50-plus ministries, it routes subsidies, pensions, scholarships and wages straight into Aadhaar-linked bank accounts. The DBT Mission estimates that DBT and related reforms, including the removal of duplicate, ineligible and non-existent beneficiaries, saved about ₹5.14 lakh crore up to March 2025.
How it works
Four reforms work together. The Black Money Act (2015) created a dedicated law for undisclosed foreign assets. The Benami Amendment (2016) made benami property confiscable and the practice imprisonable — activating a law dormant since 1988. The Fugitive Economic Offenders Act (2018) allows confiscation of an absconder's Indian assets. And faceless assessment and appeals removed the officer-taxpayer interface from income tax entirely, replacing discretion with randomised allocation.
Outlook
Transparency reforms ran alongside: over 2.25 lakh shell companies struck off from 2017, electronic auction of natural resources including coal and spectrum, GeM (Government e-Marketplace) for public procurement, and GST's invoice trail, which made a large share of indirect-tax evasion structurally harder.
By the numbers
~₹5.14 lakh crore estimated savings from DBT and related reforms (to March 2025). 320 schemes on DBT across 50+ ministries. 2.25 lakh+ shell companies struck off. Black Money Act 2015, Benami Amendment 2016, Fugitive Economic Offenders Act 2018. Sources: Ministry of Finance, DBT Mission, CBDT, PIB.
Data current to: Cumulative up to March 2025
Source: Ministry of Finance / ED / CBDT / DBT Mission — major enforcement and transparency reforms, 2014→2025. · link