Mumbai: The Modi government continued to tighten rules to fight money laundering by introducing new provisions in the the Prevention of Money-laundering Act, 2002.
In the interim budget, the finance minister has announced that time limit for attachment will be remain valid for one year during the period of investigation as against of three months currently.
According to finance bill, “ the clause 22 of the Bill seeks to amend sub-section (3) of Section 8 of the Prevention of Money-laundering Act, 2002, so as to extend the time limit of ninety days for which the attachment shall remain valid during the period of investigation to three hundred and sixty-five days.” It further said that “in computing the period of three hundred and sixty-five days, the period during which the investigation is stayed by any court shall be excluded.”
Presenting the interim Union Budget in Parliament, the finance minister Piyush Goyal reiterated the commitment of the NDA government to eliminate Black Money.
He said, “We are committed to eliminating the ills of Black Money.”
Mr Goyal added that anti-Black Money measures taken so far had brought a hither to undisclosed income of about '1.30 lakh crore to the surface. And 3.38 lakh shell companies had been deregistered.
He said the government is committed to eliminating the ills of black money.
“Anti-black money measures taken by us during the last four-and-half years in the form of black money law, Fugitive Criminal Offenders Act, and demonetisation, have brought undisclosed income of about '1,30,000 crore to tax, and led to seizure and attachment of assets worth '50,000 crore,” Mr Goyal said while presenting the interim budget for 2019-20 in the Lok Sabha.
Such measures have also compelled holders of large cash currency to disclose their source of earnings, he said.
The minister said that during this period, benami assets worth Rs 6,900 crore and foreign assets worth Rs 1,600 crore were attached.
As many as 3,38,000 shell companies have been detected and de-registered, and their directors disqualified, he added.
The government had demonetised currency notes of 500 and 1,000 denomination on November 8, 2016, to check black money. It later issued new '500 and '2,000 notes.
Earlier, President Ram Nath Kovind had said that Demonetisation was a defining moment in the NDA government’s war on corruption.
