New Delhi : Congress on Monday sought to puncture the government’s claim that the Income Declaration Scheme was a huge success and said the amount collected under it is “well below expectations”. The government had said Rs 65,250 crore in black money was declared through the one-time declaration window.
Funds collected under the ambitious scheme are well below expectations as the government’s target was to get Rs two lakh crore, senior Congress spokesperson Anand Sharma alleged.
He alleged that Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s claims about the outcome of the scheme and comparing it with a similar scheme in 1997, “which was successful”, is “misleading”.
“The Indian economy has grown eight times since 1997 and therefore the Income Declaration Scheme, 2016 should have collected eight times funds than the earlier one and this has not happened,” he said.
The government had offered a one-time chance to holders of income and assets that had illegally escaped taxes, to come clean by paying 45 per cent in tax and penalty.
On the declarations compiled so far, the government will get Rs 29,362.5 crore in tax and penalty. The declarants can pay this amount in two installments up to September 30 next year. Half or Rs 14,681.25 crore will accrue this fiscal.–PTI
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