New Delhi : Despite the rigorous measures contained in the Finance Bill to combat black money, a person who has stashed money overseas can save his neck by bringing it back to India at “any stage of the proceedings” against him under the Foreign Exchange Management Act.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has fixed no time limit for doing so, allowing disclosure and repatriation of the money at “any stage of the proceedings.”
By doing so, the person can not only escape prosecution, penalty and jail, but also plough back the assets back into the country.
Hidden in the large number of amendments Jaitley introduced to the Finance Bill just hours before its passage is a new provision to allow the competent authority or the adjudicating authority to pass appropriate orders, including setting aside of the seizures made, if the person discloses “such foreign exchange, foreign security or immovable property” amassed abroad in excess of the prescribed threshold and brings the same back into the country.
The only rider is that the application for such relief should be disposed of after hearing the representatives of the Directorate of Enforcement.
The new amendments otherwise envisage much stringent action against the black money hoarders: they talk of penalty up to three times the sum involved and confiscation of the value equivalent of immovable property in India, foreign exchange or foreign security.
One of the new amendments also provides for the adjudicating authority directing filing of a criminal complaint against the guilty person by an officer not below the rank of assistant director while another amendment says the person found to have acquired any foreign exchange, foreign security or immovable property, shall be sentenced to jail up to five years in addition to the penalty of three times the sum involved.
The 1999 Law prohibits an Indian from acquiring, holding, owning, possessing or transferring any foreign exchange, security or immovable property situated outside India beyond a threshold set by the government.
