New Delhi, Aug. 18 -- The Income Tax Department has launched a nationwide verification exercise covering nearly 400 entities suspected of making large, potentially unexplained foreign remittances, and is also examining the role of professionals who certified the transactions.

V. Rajitha, commissioner of income tax and official spokesperson of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), said in a statement on Tuesday that the department had identified the entities through ground intelligence and analysis of data on outward foreign remittances over the past three years.

"Preliminary verification found that the amounts remitted abroad did not appear to have a clear correlation with the entities' reported turnovers," the spokesperson said.

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