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Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said the Centre is planning to weed out the root causes of the black money menace and a one-time compliance window will be announced shortly for those with undeclared assets abroad to come clean.
“The Centre is taking steps to compress the flow of black money. The most important step...is to weed out the root causes,” said Jaitley, in an interview with PTI.
While a new law will come into effect from April 1, 2016 to tackle the black money menace, the government is in the process of putting in place a compliance window for those with undeclared assets abroad to come clean by paying the penalty.
“The time frame of the compliance window will be announced very shortly. We are in the process of consultation (on the time frame),” he said.
Jaitley, who has held a series of meetings with businesses, investors and government officials during his US trip, said the Centre has begun taking strong action on black money. “We have got a law passed by Parliament where illegal assets and accounts kept abroad will be penalised. So, I will impose a tax on that,” he said.
Last chance“I am going to announce in the next few days a compliance window — within so many days, disclose assets, pay the tax plus penalty. If you use that compliance window, you pay the tax, penalty and get out,” Jaitley said. “But if you do not use the compliance window and thereafter if you are caught — because the world is now moving towards automatic disclosure — you are not only going to pay a much higher penalty, but will also be prosecuted,” the Minister said.
Jaitley said the new law has created a fear psychosis in the minds of tax evaders.
“The same set of people who would get up and say take action against black money will now say this is too draconian. But this is one law, which I am not going to relent on and neither will the Prime Minister,” he said.
On domestic black money, Jaitley said the Central government has announced that any cash transaction over ₹20,000 would be prohibited for property deals.
“I am also going to very shortly announce that if you pay by cash beyond a certain limit — to be announced — giving your PAN card details is necessary,” he said.
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