Centre taking all steps to deal with black money
15 Mar 2011
Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee yesterday said the centre was taking all steps to deal with the issue of black money.
He said the centre had already detected tax evasion worth around Rs1 lakh-crore in the past 18 months, which had come through the cooperation of international agencies and domestic surveillance.
The finance minister hinted that the government would give a re-look to the two important demands of the opposition - imposition of service tax on high-end medical facilities and rationalisation of duty structure on crude oil imports.
''We have been able to bring almost Rs1 lakh-crore under the tax net in the last 18 months. Mis-pricing in international transactions to the extent of Rs33,784 crore has been detected and brought under taxation, while the Directorate of Foreign Taxation has so far detected tax evasion of Rs34,601 crore. Another Rs. 25,000 crore has been found during search and seizure operations… this is not a mean achievement,'' Mukherjee said, while replying to the debate on the Budget 2011-12 in the Rajya Sabha.
The House, later returning the Appropriation Bills, completed the first phase of the three-stage exercise for passage of the budget. The supplementary demands for grants for 2010-11and the relevant Appropriation Bills had ealier been been approved by the house.
Mukherjee said talks were in progress with various governments and agencies at the global level for tracing the black money stashed away in various international banks. He added the detection of unaccounted wealth has now become possibe thanks to the initiatives taken by global leaders at the Pittsburgh Summit for the exchange of banking and tax-related information.
''We have already entered into a Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) with 10 countries, including the Isle of Man, St. Kitts and Nevis and Channel Islands, which are not sovereign jurisdictions, while India has amended Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) with 23 countries, including Switzerland, to enable the government to seek banking information.
India has also signed DTAA with 79 other countries and is in the process of revising the agreement with other nations as well,'' he said, adding that all these steps would help in tackling with the problem.
Referring to the opposition's demands, Mukherjee said, ''That [review of tax proposals] can be announced or decided only at the time of the Finance Bill. Therefore, I will request those who are agitating to wait till the Finance Bill is approved by Parliament.'' The bill is likely to be considered by parliament next week. The parliament's budget session will conclude on 25 March.
