THE Government is
not contemplating a proposal to legalise black money. Drive against tax evasion
is an on-going process. Appropriate action under the direct tax laws including
assessment of income, raising tax demand, levy of penalty and launching of
prosecution in appropriate cases is taken whenever tax evasion is detected.
Searches and surveys conducted under the Income-tax Act have led to detection
of valuable evidence of large scale tax evasion which has been brought into
tax.
The Government has taken various steps under a multi-pronged strategy
to deal with the issue of black money which includes the following:
- Taking appropriate legislative measures such as reporting of assets (including bank accounts) kept outside the country.
- Setting up institutional mechanism to deal with money generated through unlawful acts.
- Setting up of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to unearth black money stashed abroad.
- Jointing
the global efforts to combat cross-border global tax evasion and tax
fraud and to promote international tax compliance, including supporting
the implementation of al uniform global standard on automatic exchange
of information.
- Renegotiation
of Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements (DTAAs) with other countries to
bring the Article on Exchange of Information to International
Standards, and expanding out treaty network by signing new DTAAs and by
entering into Tax Information Exchange Agreements (TIEAs) with many tax
jurisdictions to facilitate the exchange of information and to bring
transparency.
- Joining the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters.
- Effectively utilizing the information received from treaty partners to combat tax evasion and avoidance.
This information
was given by the Union Minister of Finance, Mr Arun Jaitley, in written
reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.
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