Govt measures helped detect several crores of undisclosed income, Lok Sabha told

At least 107 people have been prosecuted so far under the black money Act since it came into force in July 2015.

The Centre has taken a number of measures to bring back the black money stashed abroad in recent years after the introduction of the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015, and these have helped the government to bring ₹8,465 crore to taxation, Union minister of state for finance Pankaj Chaudhury told the Lok Sabha on Monday.

As many as 173 complaints of undisclosed assets were filed in courts in 2020-21 alone, of which 16 conviction orders have been passed. (Representational photo)

The minister told the Parliament that till May 31 this year, the government raised a demand of ₹8,216 crore under section 10(3)/10(4) of the Act through 166 cases of undisclosed foreign income.

It managed to detect undisclosed income to the tune of ₹11,010 crore in cases pertaining to International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, while in the Panama Papers leaks cases undisclosed credits of around 20,000 crore have been identified.

He said at least 107 people have been prosecuted so far under the black money Act since it came into force in July 2015.

“The Income Tax Department takes appropriate action under relevant laws against the tax evaders. Such action under direct tax laws includes searches, surveys, enquiries, assessment of income, levy of tax, interest, penalties, etc. and filing of prosecution complaints in criminal courts, wherever applicable,” Chaudhury said.

Giving further details about the prosecution and the cases filed, the minister said as many as 173 complaints were filed in courts in 2020-21 fiscal year alone, of which 16 conviction orders have been passed.

This was followed by 1,226 complaints in the 2019-20 fiscal year which saw 49 conviction orders, while in 2018-19 FY, 3,512complaints were filed of which 105 conviction orders were passed.

The most number of complaints (4,527) were filed in 2017-18, but only 75 conviction orders were passed.

The black money Act deals with the issue of black money stashed away abroad. Apart from prescribing more stringent penal consequences, this law includes the offence of wilful attempt to evade tax in relation to undisclosed foreign income and assets.

India has been a leading force in the efforts to forge a multilateral regime for proactive sharing of financial information known as Automatic Exchange of Information which will greatly assist the global efforts to combat tax evasion.

The Automatic Exchange of Information based on Common Reporting Standard has commenced from 2017 enabling India to receive financial account information of Indian residents in other countries.

India has entered into an information sharing agreement with the United States under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act of USA.