Committing to deal strongly with black money, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday warned those having undisclosed income against missing the chance to make the declaration by September 30 even as he said rapid progress has been made with regard to probe in Panama paper leaks.
Jaitley was replying to a debate on Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Amednment Bill, 2016 in the Rajya Sabha, which later passed the legislation by voice vote. The lok Sabha passed it last week.
A law alone will not solve the problem of black money but efforts will have to be made to create fear of law and stop its generation, he said.
"Since it's the Benami law like the black money law, there has to be a deterrent provision which we have put it in this partciular law and I hope people get the clear signal and don't give the state an opportunity as far as using this law is concerned," he said.
Referring to the Income Disclosure Scheme, Jaitley said those having unaccounted money should take advantage of the disclosure window ending September 30 to come clean by paying 45 per cent tax and penalty.
Talking about the Panama leaks, the minister noted that the Government had created a multi agency group.
The multi-agency group probing the Panama papers leaks, which has named around 500 Indians who have allegedly stashed money in offshore entities, had submitted three reports to the Government last month.
"There are many people who have illegal accounts, there are some who say they have transfered money on the basis of RBI rules. That investigations have progressed a lot," he said.
He further said the government has taken action in case of HSBC accounts, lichtenstein Bank and the information provided by International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). Jaitley said that fiduciary and trustee holding isallowed under the Benami bill but the investment should be made from the known sources of income.
He said the law also provides for those genuine property purchases which could have been funded by family members or other sources as a loan.
The earlier term of "known source of income" has been replaced with "known sources" with regard to purchase of property, the Finance Minister added.
He said the property outside the country will not be covered under the Benami law but will be dealt with under the black money law.
The Finance Ministry said that sufficient safeguards have been put in place to prevent any misuse provisions of the Benami law, which seeks to confiscate such properties.
"Four layers of officers and an appeal tribunal has been created since this is a major power," he said, adding it is being done because there were apprehensions that one officer might end up being corrupt.
Talking about the properties in tribal areas, he said those can be exempted from the purview of the law by the Governor of the respective state.
On concerns being expressed over mandatory use of PAN Card for purchase of high value properties, he said already 22-23 crore cards have been issued out of 25 crore families and anyone spending lakhs of rupees could obtain it online.