In a bid to ensure a practice of fair and transparent financial transaction in the country as well as abroad, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday said that the Black money Bill would be taken up in Parliament next week. He said asserting that countries world over plan to put in place a mechanism for automatic exchange of information on any financial transaction from 2017.
“Next week, I intend to take up before Parliament the law with regard to taxation of undisclosed assets and incomes abroad,” he said at the ‘Enforcement Day’ function organised by the Directorate of Enforcement.
The Government in March introduced ‘The Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets (Imposition of Tax) Bill, 2015’ which provides for heavy penalty and stiff punishment of up to 10 years for stashing unaccounted funds abroad.
There will also be a window to help persons having such funds abroad to come clean by paying tax and penalty. Jaitley said the Government has been taken steps to unearth black money stashed abroad. “There are large number of cases...Prosecutions against those offenders have been filed in last few months. The assessments of hundreds of those cases have been completed. 121 prosecutions have been filed by tax Department against them,” he said.
With the international community including G-20 leaders taking various initiatives, it would become difficult for people to hide wealth within couple of years. “India is foremost among a large number of countries that are taking interest in the G-20 initiative on automatic transmission of information with regard to monetary transaction,” he said.
“By 2017, the target is that all transactions would become transparent. Each country would go out of way to cooperate with us. By 2017, we are going to make it extremely risky for anybody to have unlawful assets or unlawful transaction of money,” he said. The Finance Minister said that although every individual and business entity in a liberalised economic environment is required to take a “judgement call”, it would be better to “go straight” when the tax rates are reasonable.
“If you breach it, gone are the days where offences would go undetected. The world is moving towards a more transparent regime which can remove the veil of secrecy behind these unlawful transactions,” the Finance Minister said. India has to prepare people for change which would come into effect from 2017, he added. The Supreme Court had appointed the Special Investigation Team (SIT) which is keeping a close eye on the system that the government is setting up and enhancing the ability to investigate those cases.
If black money gets included in the system, the growth rate would be higher, taxes would be higher and also the ability to lower tax rate would be higher, he said. “Therefore, in the larger public interest, not transacting in black money now becomes a way of life. It would probably help you sleep well and protect you from penal consequences,” he said. The Finance Minister hoped that there investigating agencies would gain perfection, avoiding harassment of the innocent. “Earlier in the week, I told the CBI in the annual day lecture that many in society can err but just as we expect a perfect judiciary,
India should start hoping for perfect investigating agencies that equally applies to you (ED),” he said, adding that trivialities can be ignored but serious offenders to be brought to the book. That balancing act I hope you would be able to achieve.