New Delhi, Oct 24 (IANS): The government on Friday announced it has substantially hiked upwards the limits for arrests and prosecution for tax evasion, smuggling and misdeclaration.

In a statement, the finance ministry said the monetary limits for arrest and prosecution have been revised substantially upwards to ensure that these powers are not used against small and medium businesses.

As per the statement, the limits in case of offence of evasion of tax or wrongful utilization of input tax credit in case of central excise and service tax have been revised to Rs.1 crore from Rs. 25 lakh and Rs. 10 lakh respectively.

"In case of evasion of tax under the Customs Act, the limits have been revised to Rs.1 crore from Rs.10 lakh in case of evasion of tax by wrongful availment of exemption or duty drawback. Similar, revisions regarding value of goods have been carried-out regarding appraisement of tax during import or export," the statement said.

In cases of outright smuggling or misdeclaration of baggage, the limits regarding value of offending goods have been revised from Rs.5 lakh to Rs.20 lakh.

As in the past, there shall be no lower limit for arrest and prosecution in the cases of smuggling of fake Indian currency notes, arms, ammunitions and explosives and endangered species.