New Delhi: With the government going hard on those holding undeclared income in overseas bank accounts, the Income Tax authorities have unearthed Rs 13,000 crore of black money from sets of information received in 2011 and 2013.
According to a report in The Times of India, the details received from the French government in 2011 that reported at least 400 cases of Indians with deposits in banks like HSBC, Geneva has led the I-T authorities unearth undisclosed income of Rs 8,186 crore.
This is the highest disclosure ever from offshore bank accounts and has raised a tax demand of Rs 5,377 crore against such account holders till March 31, 2016.
In the HSBC case, the government had received information about 628 bank accounts. 213 of these accounts were found “non actionable” as they either had no money in them or they belonged to non-resident Indians (NRIs). Moreover, there were some cases whose entities remained untraceable.
“Out of the actionable cases, assessments have been completed in 398 cases, including those settled by the I-T Settlement Commission as well as cases where assessment proceedings have been dropped,” according to an I-T assessment report.
The second set of information was disclosed in 2013 on the website of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). It IT officials to discovery of undisclosed income of more than Rs 5,000 crore in foreign bank accounts which were reportedly linked to over 700 Indians.
According to the report, the I-T department has so far filed 55 prosecution complaints before criminal courts in the ICIJ cases on charges of wilful attempt to evade tax. The basis has been false statements presented by these entities during the verification process.
On the other hand, prosecution proceedings have been initiated in 75 entities in the HSBC Geneva case. This has allowed the Enforcement Directorate to initiate action under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) since the criminal courts have taken note of the black money case.
The action by the I-T department is a relief for some Indians whose names were listed on the ICIJ website as they have already made declarations under the black money declaration window scheme, which was launched by the government for a limited period in 2015.
However, there will be no relief for those against whom the I-T department has already launched a probe.
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