May 11, 2015
NEW DELHI – Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday said the government will soon bring a new benami law as part of its efforts to deal with the black money issue.
Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitley
May 11, 2015
NEW DELHI – Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday said the government will soon bring a new benami law as part of its efforts to deal with the black money issue.
Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitley
Moving the Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets (Imposition of Tax) Bill, 2015 – which provides for penalty and tax up to 120 per cent along with criminal prosecution for those who have parked black money abroad – in Lok Sabha, Jaitley asked the Opposition not to develop cold feet in supporting the legislation.
The Finance Minister rejected the opposition demand of referring it to the Standing Committee saying delay in enacting the legislation would provide opportunity to offenders to transfer unaccounted overseas wealth to unknown destinations.
For those wanting to come clean, Jaitley said there would be a compliance window in two parts – to declare assets and to pay 30 per cent tax and 30 per cent penalty. Citing an example, he said, there could be a two-month window to declare overseas assets and within six months one would have to pay tax and penalty.
"Once the compliance window closes, anyone found having undeclared overseas wealth would be required to pay 30 per cent tax, 90 per cent penalty and face criminal prosecution," said Jaitley.
The Bill, which was introduced amid persistent demand for dealing effectively with black money stashed abroad, provides for rigorous imprisonment of up to 10 years for offenders.
Rejecting the opposition demand of sending the bill to Parliamentary Standing Committee for scrutiny, he said, "When we are taking steps, don't develop cold feet. For the last 11 months, you have been asking what steps are you taking. When I took steps, do walk the talk and support the bill and drop the demand of sending it to Standing Committee."
Courtesy: India Today
