While demonetisation has been the talk of the town for quite some time now, there were still doubts in air regarding the longevity of benefits of demonetisation. Amidst a few people questioning the rationale behind the mega cash-clean up, here comes another news which strengthens the demonetisation move.
Over Rs 16,200 crore in black money has been unearthed by the government after investigations in nexus with Indians stashing funds abroad.
“As a result of systematic investigations, undisclosed income of about Rs 8,200 crore (including protective assessment of income of Rs 1,497 crore) has been brought to tax in last about 2 years on account of deposits made in unreported foreign bank accounts in HSBC.
“Further, about Rs 8,000 crore of credits in the undisclosed foreign accounts of Indians, whose names were disclosed by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), have been detected,” Finance Minister Arun Jaitley replied in a statement to the Rajya Sabha.
“There is no official estimation of quantum of black money stashed abroad by Indians. The government is, however, committed to taking all possible measures to bring back black money stashed by Indians in foreign countries”, he added.
The Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015 was enacted to effectively tackle the menace of black money stashed away abroad, the minister said.
The BM Act furnishes a series of stringent provisions of penalties and prosecutions in regard to black money stashed away abroad, the minister said.
“Further, under this law, for the first time the offence of wilful attempt to evade tax, etc. in relation to undisclosed foreign income/assets has been made a Scheduled Offence for the purposes of the Prevention of Money-laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA),” he added.
Jaitley also pointed out a plethora of measures which have been integrated into the system to plummet the nuisance of black money. A lot of IT (Income Tax) directives have been integrated into the system to track and trace trails of black money, drug mafia and terrorism funding. This has been a clear benefit of demonetisation. Results of demonetisation will sure be positive in the long-term: a boon for India, indeed.
