Finance Ministry has said that the Income Tax Department has not issued any statement authorizing its officials to arrest willful tax defaulters. In a clarification issued on Tuesday evening, it said there are provisions for arrest and detention by the Tax Recovery Officers in respect of the non-compliant tax defaulters in the Income-tax Act, but these are used very sparingly. The clarification came in the wake of media reports that the I-T Department has asked its officers to impose penalty and initiate prosecution against non-filers of income-tax returns.<br/><br/>AIR correspondent reports that the number of non-filers with potential tax liabilities has risen from 22.09 lakh in 2014 to 58.95 lakh rupees in 2015.<br/><br/>