New Delhi: A total number of 64,275* declarants have made declaration of undisclosed income of Rs.65,250* crore under the Income Declaration Scheme, 2016. (*Provisional). Under the Income Declaration Scheme, 2016 the amount of tax, surcharge and penalty is payable in three instalments. The notified date for payment of first instalment is 30th November, 2016. Hence, the quantum of tax collected as part of the Scheme cannot be quantified at this stage.
Government has taken several measures, by way of policy initiatives and enforcement action, to curb black money. Such measures include –
(i) Constitution of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Black Money under Chairmanship and Vice-Chairmanship of two former Judges of Hon’ble Supreme Court.
(ii) Enactment of ‘The Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015’ to specifically deal with the issue of black money stashed away abroad. The Act inter alia provides stringent provisions for concealment penalties (equal to three times the amount of tax payable) and contains stringent provision for prosecution.
(iii) Constitution of Multi-Agency Group (MAG) consisting of officers of Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) for investigation of recent revelations in Panama paper leaks.
(iv) Proactively engaging with foreign governments with a view to facilitate and enhance the exchange of information under Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements (DTAAs)/Tax Information Exchange Agreements (TIEAs)/ Multilateral Conventions.
(v) Joining the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement in respect of Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) and having information sharing arrangement with USA under its Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).
(vi) Renegotiation of DTAAs with other countries to bring the Article on Exchange of Information to International Standards and expanding India’s treaty network by signing new DTAAs and TIEAs with many jurisdictions to facilitate the exchange of information and to bring transparency.
(vii) Enabling attachment and confiscation of property equivalent in value held within the country where the property/proceeds of crime is taken or held outside the country by amending the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 through the Finance Act, 2015.
(viii) Enactment of the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Amendment Act, 2016 to amend the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act, 1988 with a view to, inter alia, enable confiscation of Benami property and provide for prosecution. The provisions of the amended Prohibition of Benami Property Transaction Act, 1988 have come into effect from 01.11.2016.
(ix) Initiation of the information technology based ‘Project Insight’ by the Income Tax Department for strengthening the non-intrusive information driven approach for improving tax compliance and effective utilization of available information.
(x) Withdrawal of Rs.500 and Rs.1000 denominations of Bank Notes of the existing series issued by Reserve Bank of India vide Notification No.2652 [S.O.3407(E)] dated 08.11.2016.
(xi) Amendment of Rule 114B of the Income-tax Rules to mandate quoting of PAN, for transactions of sale or purchase of goods or services of any nature above Rs.2 Lakh.
This was stated by Shri Santosh Kumar Gangwar, Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance in written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.
