Having impressed upon the G-20 nations to adopt automatic sharing of banking and tax-related information at the Paris Ministerial meeting last weekend, Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday sought to highlight the “noteworthy” achievements and the progress made back home in unearthing unaccounted income.
In his inaugural address at the ‘Economic Editors' Conference' here, Mr. Mukherjee noted that following sustained efforts to tackle the menace of black money over the last two years, the government was successful in creating an environment where a regular flow of banking information had started.
In particular, while a huge information network had been created through amended DTAAs (double taxation avoidance agreements) with 81 nations and four TIEAs (tax information exchange agreements) with four tax havens, investigations into transactions by Indians involving black money based on information received from different parts of the world were in progress.
“Specific requests in 333 cases (220 by Foreign Tax Division of the Central Board of Direct Taxes and 113 by the Financial Intelligence Unit) have been made by Indian authorities for obtaining information from foreign jurisdictions. Over 9,900 pieces of information regarding suspicious transactions by Indian citizens from several countries have been obtained which are now under different stages of investigation,” Mr. Mukherjee said.
Giving details of other achievements, ostensibly in view of the flak that the government has been receiving in regard to black money, Mr. Mukherjee said: “Under the EOI Article of the DTAA with France, India has received some information regarding Indians having bank accounts. In 69 cases, the tax payers have admitted to the unaccounted income of Rs.397.17 crore. Taxes of Rs.30.07 crore have also been paid.”
The revised DTAA with Switzerland, the Minister said, would allow India to obtain banking information from the European nation in specific cases for a period starting from April 1, 2011. India is also “constructively” engaged with Mauritius to update the tax avoidance treaty in line with international practices.
Besides, the investigation wing of the CBDT has also unearthed concealed income worth Rs.18,750 crore during the last two fiscals while over 30,700 pieces of domestic information on suspicious transactions are under investigation by various agencies. “During the first five months of the current financial year, concealed income of Rs.3,014 crore has been detected due to focused searches on the basis of information received from foreign jurisdictions,” Mr. Mukherjee said.
