New Delhi: The finance minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday warned that the people who have failed to declare their black money stashed abroad during the compliance window “now stand the risk” of information on them reaching the tax authorities.
Pointing out that “bulk of black money is still within India”, he said that use of plastic money will be encouraged and the government will soon make it mandatory to furnish PAN card details for cash transactions beyond a certain threshold.
“Those who chose to declare between this period (compliance window) would not be prosecuted under the new black money law. These declarants can now sleep well. For those who have undisclosed foreign assets but have failed to file such a declaration will now be subjected to penal provisions of this (new black money) law,” the minister said in his social media post.
Mr Jaitley said that undeclared foreign assets of such individuals will be confiscated and they will be liable to prosecution where they can be sentenced for upto 10 years. “This law will create a deterrent in future against the flight of capital from India,” he said.
Some 638 people have declared Rs 3,770 crore black money in foreign countries under the tax amnesty scheme which ended last week. The compliance window to come clean was offered by the Modi government before the provisions of the Black Money and Imposition of Tax Act, kicks in.
Noting that bulk of black money is still within India, Mr Jaitley said the country needs a change in attitude where plastic currency becomes the norm and cash an exception. “Loans being made available to them by the banks can only be withdrawn from the ATMs by use of MUDRA credit cards which are being provided to them.”
The finance minister also said that the monitoring regime of the income tax has been strengthened and its capacity to access information and apply technology driven analytical tools to expose evasion, has been enhanced.
“Its (income-tax department’s) ability to detect large cash withdrawals, or large cash transactions which enter the system, is being strengthened. GST regime once introduced will also be a landmark step in this direction.”
“Thus for commodities like gold where the initial purchase by the exporter is after the payment of custom duty, the subsequent transactions which are mostly in cash, can easily be found out,” Mr Jaitley said.
