Govt goes all out to get more black money disclosures

The taxman will stay awake till midnight on September 30 as the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has directed the Income Tax department to keep its offices open nationwide for domestic black money holders wanting to come clean under the Income Declaration Scheme (IDS).

The last date for making declaration under the IDS, 2016 is September 30, 2016 and hence the declarations can be filed till the midnight of that day.

In order to facilitate the filing of declarations even after office hours, the Principal Chief Commissioners are instructed to ensure that the counters for receiving the declarations under IDS, 2016 remain open till the midnight of September 30, 2016 in all jurisdictions, the CBDT said in an order on Thursday.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is keen that the IT Department put its best foot forward to facilitate the maximum number of disclosures, a senior official said.

Other officials confirmed that the orders have been received by the field formations of the income tax department.

CBDT chief Rani Singh Nair will also hold a review meeting in this regard on September 17 along with all the I-T regional chiefs of the country. According to sources the income tax department has received disclosures of a little over Rs 1,000 crore till the first week of September and is going all out to attract more declarations as it was expecting a much higher figure.

The government on Thursday again made it clear that all information and declarations that the I-T department receives till September 30 under IDS will be kept confidential and shall not be shared and has suggested that such declarations can also be made online using the e-filing website of the department. The CBDT, while issuing its sixth clarification on the IDS recently, had ruled out any extension of the four month window that ends on September 30.

The government had also extended the deadline for payment of tax and penalty under IDS and allowed declarants to pay the amount in three instalments by September 30 next year. The first instalment of 25 per cent under the IDS 2016 will have to be paid by November 2016, followed by another 25 per cent by March 31, 2017.

The remaining amount will have to be paid to the exchequer by September 30, 2017. Earlier the tax, surcharge and penalty under the black money disclosure window were required to be paid by November 30.

The scheme was announced by the government with an aim to bring out black money from the domestic economy. The government had come out with a similar scheme for Indians holding undisclosed income abroad.