The three months black money compliance window, created under the new anti-Black Money Act for declaring undisclosed assets held abroad, has yielded Rs3,770 crore from 638 declarations, the Government said on Thursday.
“A total of 638 declarations have been received under the compliance window declaring undisclosed foreign assets amounting to Rs3,770 crore. These figures are subject to final reconciliation,” the Finance Ministry said in a statement based on figures provided to it by the CBDT.
“Tax at the rate of 30 per cent and penalty at the rate of 30 per cent is to be paid by December 31, 2015. The window, created under the new anti-Black money Act, saw a hectic rush on the last day on last Wednesday as declarants made a beeline to meet the deadline at the only I-T office designated here for the task,” It added.
The Government, however, said it would initiate ‘action’ against those, who have not disclosed their black money and assets stashed abroad as the one-time compliance window under the newly enacted anti-Black Money law ended on Tuesday.
“Whatever has come, we accept it and now onwards we would start the action against those people who have not declared any asset and about whom the information would come to us,” Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia told reporters here.
However the statement said, “Black Money or Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015 (the Act) has been enacted to deal with the menace of black money stashed abroad. “The Act also provided for a compliance window for a limited period to persons who have undisclosed foreign assets which they had not disclosed for the purposes of Income-tax so far.”
The Government, however, felt that the window was the only opportunity for people to come clean in this regard and it had no particular figure of money in mind that would come out after this 90-day exercise that finished on Wednesday. “In order to give them an opportunity, this compliance window was there upto September 30 and the figures we have got so far are that 638 people have announced their foreign investment or foreign assets including bank account balances and the total amount coming to Rs 3,770 crore. So, it was only an opportunity given by us and we had no particular figure in mind,” Adhia said.
The compliance window opened on 1st July, 2015 and was till 30th of September 2015. It said the officer designated to receive declarations worked till midnight even as the e-filing portal was also open till midnight to receive the declarations.
The Finance Ministry had added that these figures, as of now, are ‘subject to final reconciliation’. A tax at the rate of 30 per cent and a separate penalty at the rate of 30 per cent has to be paid by December 31, 2015 by these declarants after verification by the tax department.