New Delhi: Since March 2014, the government has detected undisclosed income of over Rs 16,000 crore, seized assets worth Rs 1,200 crore and filed 774 cases as part of its ongoing crackdown on black money.
"In 2014-15 and 2015-16 (up to November), the Income Tax Department by its enforcement actions has detected undisclosed income worth more than Rs 16,000 crore and seized assets worth Rs 1,200 crore," Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia said today.
"Prosecution has been filed in 774 cases (up to September 2015)."
The measures that led to the detection included a one-time 90-day window to come clean on undisclosed wealth, which led to declarations worth over Rs 4,160 crore, and the government is expecting Rs 2,500 crore as tax and penalties by month-end, he said.
"The present government is very serious on the issue of black money. Various pronouncements of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley have made it very clear that this government does not want to spare any effort to bring people with black money to book," Adhia said.
There are a slew of measures adopted by the government to deal with the menace of black money, particularly illegal wealth stashed abroad. The Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015, has been enacted. This provides for stringent penalties and a jail term.
A one-time compliance window was also provided to those who held illegal foreign wealth to pay a tax and penalty of 60 per cent and escape the new law's penal provisions.
In all, 635 declarations worth Rs 4,160 crore of illegal wealth were made in the three-month compliance window.
"The last date for paying income tax for those people who made disclosures under the Black Money Act is December 31, 2015. We are hopeful of getting approximately Rs 2,500 crore as tax in the current year," he said.
Articulating new measures introduced by the government to curb black money, Adhia said that the requirement of mandatory furnishing of PAN for money transactions above certain limits is a way to make people report their income legitimately.
The government is also set to initiate enforcement action on a large scale in cases where it gets definite information.
"Our attempt to get more information from governments of other countries about the resident tax payers is likely to get more traction in 2016," he said.
The past two years have also seen international cooperation on tax matters gaining momentum, with a multilateral agreement on automatic exchange of information taking final shape. India has already started to get information from the US under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) signed between the two countries.
(With PTI inputs)
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