The Income Tax Department is all set to crack the whip on tax defaulters by invoking its power, which has not been used for many years, to arrest and prosecute evaders.

The step comes in the backdrop of the government initiating various steps to curb generation of black money in the country and also recently notifying the creation of the first-ever Criminal Investigation (CI) unit in the I-T Department.

The I-T Department, through its Tax Recovery Officer (TRO), has been bestowed with the powers to "arrest and detain" in prison a tax defaulter and carry out subsequent stringent penal action against the individual under the provisions of the Income Tax Act to recover arrears. (PTI)