Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has told the corporate sector to not to take undue advantage of the liberalised economic environment and lower taxation rates.

Addressing the foundation day celebration of the Enforcement Directorate here on Friday, he said the world is moving towards a more transparent regime, which would remove the veil of secrecy behind unlawful transactions.

“I think, for every individual assessee as well as for those in commercial business, it is a judgment call to go straight in a liberal economic environment of reasonable and lower taxation rates. If you transact within the limits of law, it is much safer, if you breach it, gone are the days where offences would go undetected,” he said.

Jaitley said the government would move the ‘Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets (imposition of Tax) Bill, 2015’ in the Lok Sabha next week. The Bill provides for separate taxation of any undisclosed income regarding foreign income and assets. On black money investigations under the supervision of the Special Investigation Team, he said that the assessment of 100 cases has been completed and 121 prosecutions have been filed by the tax department against those who were caught with accounts abroad.

The Finance Minister also said that by 2017, globally every monetary transaction would become transparent following the G20 initiative of automatic transmission of information.

Global cooperation The level of co-operation between nations will increase, he said, adding that the Americans have taken a strong initiative in their domestic law. The US wants every country to sign an arrangement with it on transmission of information.

Subsequently, countries that sign the arrangement will also have their own respective rules, he said.

“Both these arrangements by 2017 are going to make it extremely risky for anybody to have unlawful assets or unlawful transaction of money. We, in India, have to prepare our people for that,” the Minister cautioned.

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