New Delhi: Government is likely to bring a new law on black money during the ongoing Parliament session to effectively deal with the menace, Revenue Secretary Shaktikanta Das said on Wednesday.
“It is our endeavour to introduce the bill in the first leg of the Budget Session before Parliament goes for recess,” he said while addressing a CII event here.
The first leg of the ongoing Budget Session of Parliament ends on March 20. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his budget speech had announced that the government would come out with a new law to effectively deal with the black money stashed abroad. The proposed law will have a provision of 10-year rigorous imprisonment for concealment of overseas assets.
Elaborating on the proposed law, Das said, “The (revenue) department will be empowered to attach assets of equivalent value in India. As a country, we need to curb this.” The new law, he added, would plug loopholes and strengthen the hands of revenue department in dealing with the assets stashed abroad.
Referring to the efforts being made by the revenue department to obtain information about persons mentioned in the HSBC list from Swiss authorities, Das said, “They have agreed to provide information in respect of cases which are independently investigated by our tax authorities and income tax department.”
The Swiss authorities have also promised to provide all information in a time-bound manner, he said, adding “for the first time (they have agreed) to commence negotiations with India with regard to automatic exchange of information.
“They have also agreed to validate any information with regard to banking or non-banking information.”
India received a list of 628 names having bank accounts in HSBC bank in Geneva. The list was being treated as stolen data by Switzerland, while India considered it as genuine as it received the information from the sovereign government of France.
The things changed after India persuaded Swiss authorities to share data on persons in the HSBC list, which were independently probed by the India. He said that a revenue department delegation to Switzerland last year in October achieved major breakthrough.
“We explained to the Swiss authorities that there are large number of several cases, which we have independently investigated irrespective of the fact that the name finds place in (HSBC) list. We have investigated and we want information from you. Just because the name finds place in that list should you be denying information?” Das said.
Jaitley, while replying to questions in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday had said authorities have so far detected “an income which is evaded to the extent of Rs 3,250 crore for which there is a tax impact” and proceedings have been initiated against the defaulters.
“Let me assure the members that nobody which is part of the HSBC list against whom evidence is forthcoming is going to be spared,” the Minister had said.
According to Jaitley, a large number of those in the HSBC list have been identified and assessment would be completed by March 31.
