Attached property of economic offenders valued over ₹22,000 crore has been restored to public sector banks and other legitimate claimants, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told the Lok Sabha on Tuesday. She also disclosed that over 2 lakh assesses have declared their foreign assets in Income Tax Returns this fiscal.
“Properties belonging to Vijaya Mallya, valued at ₹14131.6 crore, were restored and complete amount of attached properties has been successfully restored to the Public Sector Banks,” she said while replying to debate on the first batch of Supplementary Demands for Grants in the Lok Sabha.
As regards the Nirav Modi case, she said, properties to the tune of ₹1,052.58 crore have been restored to PSBs and private banks. In the Mehul Choksi case, properties worth ₹2,565.90 crore have been attached and will be auctioned.
“We have not spared anyone, even if they fled the country. We’ve gone after them. ED has collected this money and given back to the banks. So, it is important to recognize that we have not spared anybody (who committed) economic offences. We are after them. We will be making sure that money, which has got to go back to banks, will go back,” Sitharaman said.
Talking about measures to spread awareness among taxpayers for disclosure of foreign assets and income, she said that number of such assesses rose to more than 2 lakhs in current Assessment Year (2024-25) as against over 60000 in AY 2021-22.
As on June 30, orders under the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income & Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015 have been passed in about 697 cases raising demand of more than ₹17,520 crores (approx.), she said.
On the employment front, the Minister quoted 2023-24 annual PLFS report which showed that all-India Annual Unemployment Rate has been declining since the beginning of the survey in 2017-18, falling from 6 per cent in 2017-18 to 3.2 per cent in 2023-24. Also, the Female labour force participation rate (FLFPR) has been on the rise for the past six years from 24.5 per cent in 2018-19 to 41.7 per cent in 2023-24.