Meenakshi J Goswami,Commissioner of Income Tax (Media and Technical Policy) and official Spokesperson, CBDT, on Tuesday, clarified that the Income Tax Department has not issued any statement regarding the arrest of wilful defaulters. She added that though the provisions for arrest and detention by the Tax Recovery Officers in respect of the non-compliant tax defaulters are contained in the Income-tax Act, these are used extremely sparingly. She further clarified that no specific directions to alter this position have been issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes. IT Dept came up with such clarification after a section of press carried news reports that IT Dept was going to arrest wilful defaulters of tax.