Rs 65,250-cr worth black money out in four months
“Some disclosures have not been tabulated… This figure could be revised upward once the final tabulation is done”.
New Delhi : In the biggest ever blackmoney disclosure, at least Rs 65,250 crore of undisclosed assets were declared in the one-time compliance window, yielding Rs 29,362 crore in taxes to the government.
Announcing the declarations made under the Income Declaration Scheme (IDS), Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said 64,275 declarants disclosed an amount of Rs 65,250 crore.
Jaitley told a press conference here on Saturday that this figure will go up since the income tax authorities are still tabulating details of the declarations filed in the physical printed forms all over the country till late night on Friday, the last day under the scheme for making declarations.
There were declarations both physical and online. The collection announced also included the online declarations that poured in till Friday midnight. Jaitley said response to the amnesty scheme shows the government”s determination to curb black money and promote tax compliance.
He hailed the scheme as a major step towards reining in the parallel economy of the country and part of the government”s use of non-intrusive methods to widen and deepen the tax base.
An elated Prime Minister Modi tweeted his compliments to “all those who chose to be tax compliant in IDS-2016.” He hailed it as a great contribution towards transparency & growth of the economy.” In another tweet, he complimented “FM @arunjaitley & his team at @FinMinIndia for the hard work resulting in the successful outcome of IDS-2016.”
Though there was a slow start of the scheme with very few coming forward to declare their black money, Jaitley said there was a tremendous response from the general public, especially in the last two months.
The scheme, the latest initiative of the government to tackle the menace of black money, had provided a one-time opportunity to the black money holders who had not paid full taxes in the past to come clean by declaring their domestic undisclosed income and assets by paying tax plus penalty at the rate of 45 per cent. No target for disclosures or collections from the scheme had been set for the CBDT (Central Board of Direct Taxes), Jaitley underlined.
The CBDT removed the difficulties that had been expressed by those wanting to avail of the scheme, especially with respect to making the tax payment within a short span by agreeing to accept them three instalments, the last being in September 2017. The declarants have been assured of absolute confidentiality of the declarations made.
Jaitley refused to draw any comparison between the 2016 IDS and the Voluntary Disclosure Scheme of 1997 during the United Front government of H D Deve Gowda in which that fetched Rs 9,760 crore in taxes at an average of Rs 7 lakh per declarant. In the present case, the average return of the declarants is Rs 1 crore. Unlike the IDS, that scheme, Jaitley said, did not penalise the declarants and allowed them to value the assets being declared at the market prices of 1987 rather than current rates.
He said the income tax and penalties collected under the scheme will be used for public welfare. “If we become a totally tax-compliant country we will have more resources for public welfare.” he noted. Sharing the progress of steps taken by the Modi government, Jaitley said, the BJP-led NDA Government had focused in the last two years in increasing tax compliance and reducing tax avoidance in the country.
In the 175 cases of black money allegedly stashed overseas in HSBC bank accounts, the CBDT has already filed 164 prosecutions following assessments of sums that add up to Rs 8,000 crore. The probe is being monitored by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up under the directions of the Supreme Court.
Following the leads from the investigations undertaken by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), it has detected Rs. 5,000 crore of undisclosed deposits in foreign accounts made and filed 55 prosecution cases in those cases. Similarly, investigation in the Panama papers has led to 250 references being made to other countries asking for details about tax evaders, bank accounts etc.
Besides, a quantum jump in the searches and survey has resulted in the seizure of Rs 1,986 crore as well as unearthing of the undisclosed income of Rs 56,378 crore in the last two and half years, the Finance Minister said. By more intensive monitoring of the database of non-filers of tax returns, the CBDT realised Rs 16,000 crore in additional tax collections. Cases of prosecution and compounding in the last two and half years rose to 3,626 or more than double as compared to previous two years, he said.
