New Delhi: In a bid to clarify issues related to the black money law the government will soon come out with second set of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). “Some more questions have come to us. If there are any more questions, we would be happy to clarify them. We are having meeting with Institute of Chartered Accountants and its members in Mumbai on August 26. May be 2-3 days after the Mumbai meeting we will issue (second set of) FAQs,” Revenue Secretary Shaktikanta Das said here.
Last month, the government had issued FAQs on black money law wherein 32 questions were answered. Stressing that the government has huge commitment to fight the menace of black money, Das said “the law had to be stringent…the problem is very complex, very serious, therefore the law had to be stringent to deal with which is not a soft problem. It’s a hard core problem, you cannot have a soft law to deal with.”
The black money law is not intended to be a revenue mobilisation measure, he said. “If you have a revenue mobilisation measure, it has to be an amnesty scheme. Amnesty scheme always looks attractive in the short term but in the medium and the long term acts as an incentive for non-compliance. In the long term it is not a good idea to have,” he said.
For those who want to come clean on black money, compliance window has been provided. The one-time 90-day compliance window being provided to foreign asset holders to come clean will, however, it does not guarantee immunity for wealth generated from corruption.
Das assured that information received under the black money law will be treated confidential. Allaying apprehensions of leakage, he said the information will be closely held by the department. Speaking at the same event, CBDT Chairperson Anita Kapur said that the Tax department is concerned about domestic tax evasion.
“For us there is equally important aspect of our internal problems were people do not declare their proper income and there are related issue of equity and development,” she said. “We live in a country where we requires resources to provide public goods,” she added.
