The Lok Sabha on Friday passed the Finance Bill, 2014, by voice vote giving effect to the legislative tax proposals in the Budget even as Finance Minister Arun Jaitley reiterated the government’s commitment to bringing back black money from abroad.
“I can assure you that you don't have to wait for long to see that we have brought back the black money,” Mr. Jaitley said while replying to the debate on the Finance Bill.
“Our government has formed a special investigation team (SIT),” he said.
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“If the SIT wants to take steps, the government will give full cooperation.”
Mr. Jaitley said the government had received certain information from the French government regarding accounts of Indians in a bank in Switzerland and also from “tax haven” Lichtenstein.
Asserting that there was no jurisdictional issue over dealing with the menace of black money, he said the SIT had been set up and “whatever information we have, we are sharing with the Supreme Court. The government will extend full support to the SIT.”
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Mr Jaitley said there was global opinion against money laundering and pressure was building on tax havens to share information.
He said the NDA government would not be a high-tax government as it intended to create more jobs and give a fillip to the economy. A low- tax regime will allow India to emulate China, where low taxation had helped boost manufacturing, he said.