Stash-declarations Fetch Rs 65,250-Cr Blackmoney: Arun Jaitley 

New Delhi: As much as Rs 65,250 crore of blackmoney was declared during the four-month compliance window, the Income Declaration Scheme, that ended on September 30, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said here on Saturday. The four-month window for declaring black money was closed on Friday.

Jaitley said 64,275 declarations were made in the four- month window and this figure could go up once all the declarations filed online and manually are compiled.

The one-time window was not an amnesty scheme like the 1997 one, Jaitley said the tax collected in the 1997 Voluntary Disclosure of Income Scheme (VDIS) was Rs 9,760 crore with an average declaration of Rs 7 lakh.The tax collected from the Income Declaration Scheme (IDS) 2016 will go into the Consolidated Fund of India and will be used for larger welfare of people.

The money declared totals Rs 65,250 crore, of which 45 per cent would accrue to the government as tax and penalty. The government had provided illegal income and asset holders a one-time opportunity to come clean by declaring their blackmoney under the four-month window and pay 45 per cent tax and penalty.

Reiterating that the one-time window was not an amnesty scheme like the 1997 one, Jaitley said the tax collected in the 1997 Voluntary Disclosure of Income Scheme (VDIS) was Rs 9,760 crore with an average declaration of Rs 7 lakh.

The tax collected from the Income Declaration Scheme (IDS) 2016 will go into the Consolidated Fund of India and will be used for larger welfare of people, he added.

CBDT Expects Rs 30,000-Cr Tax from IDS Declarations

Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) is anticipating a tax revenue of Rs 30,000 crore, with 50 per cent coming this fiscal, under the one-time domestic black money compliance window that has seen stash declarations to the tune of Rs 65,250 crore. CBDT Chairperson Rani Singh Nair said that while this tax amount is expected as per the current slab of 45 per cent, they will wait to pledge a confirmed revenue figure under the IDS as some declarations are still being revised and reconciled.

Rani Singh Nair said: "We expect a tax of Rs 30,000 crore from the declarations made under the Income Declaration Scheme. 50 per cent of this amount should come within the current financial year as payments of tax and penalty are staggered and will finally end in September next year."

The CBDT boss added the I-T department will not undertake any increased scrutiny or harassment of taxpayers, now that the window has closed but added any case of tax evasion will be processed as per law. She said the department and CBDT were very happy over the outcome and declarations made under the IDS and that was something to be proud off.

Rani Singh Nair, CBDT Chairperson

We expect a tax of Rs 30,000 crore from the declarations made under the Income Declaration Scheme. 50 per cent of this amount should come within the current financial year as payments of tax and penalty are staggered and will finally end in September next year.

"We are satisfied with the outcome of the IDS and are working to tabulate the final figures of declarations and their value," Nair said. She said a digital verification is going on to quickly gather the data as both the physical and online counters were active till midnight. Asked if the IDS was successful as compared to the 1997 VDIS, she said while no such comparisons should be drawn, the latest one-time domestic black money compliance window has shown that the average declarations made per person were higher under it.

The Chairperson said the field formations of the I-T department undertook massive outreach programmes across the country. The department undertook over 50,000 meetings and sessions in various cities under the IDS, a senior official said.

Source: PTI