'Received info on money held in overseas bank accounts'

The government has received a number of cases of information relating to money held in foreign bank accounts, minister of state for finance SS Palanimanickam on Tuesday said.

The government has received a number of cases of information relating to money held in foreign bank accounts, minister of state for finance SS Palanimanickam on Tuesday said.

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"The government has received a number of cases of information relating to remittances, payments and money held in foreign bank accounts etc under the provisions of the DTAA/TIEAs," Palanimanickam said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

He was responding to a question on whether government has received details regarding 9,900 persons who have deposited black money in foreign banks and whether the government is investigating those persons.

Every reliable information, including information received from outside the country, Palanimanickam said "is verified according to the provision of Direct Tax laws and action is taken to being undisclosed amounts to taxation".

He said the tax department levies penalty in cases of concealment and in appropriate cases, initiates prosecution proceedings.

To another question on the amount of black money confiscated during the last two years, Palanimanickam said the Income Tax department has seized assets worth Rs. 905.61 crore and Rs. 774.98 crore in the 2011-12 and 2010-11 fiscal, respectively.

India currently has Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements (DTAA) with 82 countries and Tax Information Exchange Agreements (TIEA) with 17 jurisdictions.