New Delhi: More than Rs.65,000 crore of black money has been declared under the government’s income disclosure scheme by more than 64,000 declarants, finance minister Arun Jaitley said on Saturday, in a move that is likely to net the government almost Rs.30,000 crore in tax revenues. “Money will go into the consolidated fund of India and will go for the social security programmes of the government. “More people in the higher income bracket want to become tax compliant,” he added pointing out that the average declaration is around Rs.1 crore per individual or entity. Finance minister Arun Jaitley had announced the income declaration scheme in this year’s budget wherein domestic taxpayers could declare their undisclosed income and escape prosecution by paying a total tax and penalty of 45%. Taking a swipe at the voluntary disclosure of income scheme brought in by his predecessor P. Chidambaram in 1997, Jaitley pointed out that this was not an immunity scheme as there was a penalty levied on the declarant.

Source: Mint October 01, 2016 11:03 UTC