If you thought the Modi-led Government would come up with any amnesty scheme for bringing back undisclosed money stashed in foreign countries, think again.
An amnesty scheme is not in the works for not only the black money stashed abroad, but also for the undisclosed income kept within the country.
"There is no proposal to bring general amnesty scheme for declaring the undeclared income," the Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley, told the Lok Sabha in a written reply on Friday.
He was replying to a question from Kapil Moreshwar Patil on whether the Government proposes to bring "general amnesty scheme for declaring the undeclared income".
The Finance Minister's reply is seen as a clear pointer that the Centre may not come up with any amnesty scheme for bringing back the black money stashed abroad.
Pre-poll promise
Given the pre-poll promise of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to bring back black money stashed abroad within 100 days of assuming power, there is pressure on the new dispensation to deliver on this promise.
The Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Venkaiah Nadu, had recently parried the Opposition leaders' questions on this issue, stating that no written commitment to this effect (100 days promise) was actually given in BJP's manifesto.
Partho Dasgupta, Partner, BDO India LLP, a professional services firm, said he was "bit surprised" by the Finance Minister's reply.
Rather than providing amnesty to tax evaders, it appears that the Government is keen to identify and bring to book all the tax evaders and collect tax on the undisclosed income,interest and also penalty, he said.
If amnesty were to be provided, there won't be any scope for collecting interest or levy of penalties, it was pointed out.
Aseem Chawla, Partner, MPC Legal, a law firm, said the Finance Minister's reply was "generalised answer" to a "general question".
He felt that too much cannot be read into the reply.
"All along Government has not been able to come up with a focused mechanism of tackling the menace of black money."
In general, one is aware that black money is prevalent in Indian society, Chawla said.
Need of the hour is to come up with a coherent strategy that answers the question of how to tackle the black money than answering the question of why there is black money, he said.
"In a situation where a specific question on black money were to be asked, one would have been curious to know the answer of the Honorable Finance Minister," Chawla told BusinessLine here.
Voluntary disclosure scheme
India had several voluntary disclosure schemes earlier and the last such scheme-voluntary disclosure of income scheme (VDIS) was introduced in 1997.
The VDIS 1997 commenced on July 1, 1997 and ended on December 31, 2007.