No death for black money: Panel

A top government panel on black money decided on Friday against recommending imposition of death penalty for economic offences based on law ministry's advice.

A top government panel on black money decided on Friday against recommending imposition of death penalty for economic offences based on law ministry's advice.

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The committee on black money has been asked to examine, among other things, imposing an 'exemplary punishment' on economic offenders.

While asking the government to bring back black money stashed in tax havens abroad, yoga guru Baba Ramdev had demanded death penalty to be imposed on black money hoarders.

"Death penalty is awarded in the rarest of rare crimes by Indian courts and it can't be imposed on economic offenders," a finance ministry official said.

The panel also said it would not recommend the government any voluntary disclosure scheme. It comes barely a week after the Central Board of Direct Taxes had proposed an amnesty scheme offering Indian entities a window to bring back undisclosed assets illegally stashed in overseas tax havens.

"The committee is not likely to recommend any voluntary disclosure scheme ... and there is no need to have any new law to tackle the black money menace, but to strengthen the existing ones," the official said, without citing any reason for dropping the previous voluntary disclosure proposal.

The panel has proposed to increase the period of assessment year from six years for an assessee - a regular taxpayer, if found evading taxes or laundering money. The committee has proposed stronger regulation of the real estate sector.