New Delhi: Government today disclosed that it will offer a "window" to Indians holding black money in foreign bank accounts to come clean but categorically ruled out any amnesty scheme for them.
A day after Frinance Minister Arun Jaitley announced in his budget that a stringent law will be brought providing for upto 10 years imprisonment for concealment of income, Government said that foreign bank account holders would be provided a window to disclose their accounts and assets.
In an interview to PTI, Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha said the failure to unveil assets abroad will invite a rigorous jail term of up to seven years, while concealment of income and tax evasion would result in 10-year imprisonment.
These provisions will be part of a Bill that the government plans to bring in the current session of Parliament to check the black money menace.
Jaitley had said that the offences under these provisions would be non-compundable and Sinha elaborated, saying that concealment of overseas income and evasion of tax will be prosecutable with punishment of rigorous imprisonment upto 10 years.
In case of non-filing of returns or filing of returns with inadequate disclosure of foreign assets, the punishment will be rigorous imprisonment upto seven years.
Sinha said penalty for concealment of such income and assets would be at the rate of 300 per cent of the tax.
The minister ruled out bringing any amnesty scheme."There is no amnesty scheme. We have said very clearly, we expect everybody, who has any undisclosed wealth, accounts, so on ...Outside the country should disclose that.
"We have created a window to do that. There is no amnesty at all. You have to disclose, what you have. You have a certain amount of time to disclose that...If they don't disclose, they will be liable to punishment of various imprisonment up to 7 years."
Moreover, as per the provisions, the account holder will have to mandatorily specify the date of opening of foreign account in the return of income.
Besides enacting a new law, the efforts to curb black money include changes in the benami transaction act and restrictions on acceptance of cash beyond Rs 20,000 as advance for real estate transactions.
While unveiling his budget proposals yesterday, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said, "tracking down and bringing back the wealth which legitimately belongs to the country is our abiding commitment to the country.
"Recognising the limitations under the existing legislation, we have taken a considered decision to enact a comprehensive new law on black money to specifically deal with such money stashed away abroad. To this end, I propose to introduce a Bill in the current Session of the Parliament."
Besides other things, the abettors of offences, whether individuals, entities, banks or financial institutions would also be liable for prosecution and penalty.
