Assessments of illegal money parked overseas almost completed

India has brought to tax illegal money to the tune of ₹6,500 crore stashed abroad in Liechtenstein and in the HSBC Bank in Geneva, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said.

Presenting a report card of the NDA Government's campaign against black money abroad, Jaitley said in a social media post that most assessments have been completed as regards the holding of illegal money in HSBC Bank Geneva and Liechtenstein.

“Wherever illegalities are being found, criminal prosecutions have been launched against beneficiaries of these bank accounts. A total peak balance of about ₹6,500 crore in these accounts has been assessed,” Jaitley said.

Jaitley also made it clear that it was “ill conceived” to compare the assessed income of ₹6,500 crore in HSBC and ₹3,770 crore (declaration under one-time compliance window under anti- black money law) with the amnesty schemes relating to domestic black money.

These incomes (₹6,500 crore and ₹3,770 crore) should not be treated as income under any immunity scheme.

“The campaign against domestic black money has to be separately dealt with, for which the Government is independently taking steps”, Jaitley said.

The 638 persons who declared unaccounted foreign assets to the tune of ₹3,770 crore can now “sleep well”, he said, adding that no prosecutions would be launched against them.

However, those who have undisclosed foreign assets but have failed to file such a declaration will now be subjected to the penal provisions of black money law, Jaitley said.

Also, over the next two years the international co-operation on information exchange will be in place and information with regard to illegal assets held abroad would be available to each of the nations making an enquiry.

“Thus, those with illegal assets abroad, who have failed to make declaration, would now stand the risk of information relating to them eventually reaching the Indian tax authorities,” Jaitley said.

Stating that bulk of black money is still within India, Jaitley said there was a need for change of attitude where plastic currency becomes the norm and cash an exception.

To tackle the menace of domestic black money, the Government is at an advanced stage in considering the requirement of furnishing Permanent Account Number (PAN) card details, if cash transactions beyond a certain limit are undertaken, he said.

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