India / No official estimate of black money stashed in Swiss banks for last 10 years: Government

New Delhi: There is no official estimate of black money stashed in Swiss Bank for the last 10 years, according to a written reply given by MoS Finance Pankaj Chaudhary in Lok Sabha.

Pankaj Chaudhary was responding to a question asked about the amount of black money stashed in the Swiss Bank for the last ten years, and the steps taken by the government to retrieve it.

Chaudhary said the government has taken multiple steps in recent years to bring back black money stashed abroad.

Some of the measures he listed include:

A) Enactment of ‘The Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015’ — which came into force w.e.f. 01.07.2015 — to specifically and more effectively deal with the issue of black money stashed away abroad.

Apart from prescribing more stringent penal consequences, this law has included the offence of wilful attempt to evade tax etc. in relation to undisclosed foreign income/assets as a Scheduled Offence under the Prevention of Money-laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA).

B) Constitution of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Black Money under chairmanship and vice-chairmanship of two former judges of Supreme Court,

C) Proactively engaging with foreign governments with a view to facilitate and enhance the exchange of information under Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements (DTAAs)/Tax Information Exchange Agreements (TIEAs)/Multilateral Conventions.

D) 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 (AXI), which will greatly assist the global efforts to combat tax evasion.

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

E) India has entered into an information-sharing agreement with the USA under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act of the USA.

CASES RELATED TO BLACK MONEY, TAX EVASION

Another question was asked in connection with the number of people arrested and charged for stashing black money overseas or evading tax. As per the finance ministry, the Income Tax Department takes appropriate action under relevant laws against income tax evaders.

The actions include searches, surveys, enquiries, assessment of income, levy of tax, interest, penalty and filing of prosecution complaints in criminal courts, wherever applicable.

The details of the prosecution complaints filed during the tax department under the Income Tax Act, 1961 are as follows:

In addition, more than 107 prosecution complaints have been filed under the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015. As a result of systematic actions, as of 31.05.2021, the following results have been achieved:(Figures are provisional)

1) As per finance ministry data, as of 31.05.2021, assessment orders under Section 10(3)/10(4) of the Black Money Act, 2015 have been passed in 166 cases, wherein a demand of Rs 8,216 crore has been raised.

2) Undisclosed income of Rs. 8,465 crore (approx.) has been brought to tax and a penalty of Rs 1,294 crore have been levied in connection with the HSBC cases.

3) Undisclosed income of Rs 11,010 crore (approx.) has been detected in ICIJ (International Consortium of Investigative Journalists) cases.

4) In the cases related to the Panama Papers, undisclosed credit of Rs. 20,078 crore (approx.) has been detected.

5) In the Paradise Papers Leaks cases, undisclosed credits of Rs. 246 crore (approx.) have been detected.