Black money window: More disclosures likely towards Sept-end

The government expects the number of disclosures about unaccounted overseas wealth under the black money window to go up in the last few weeks of the compliance period, which ends on September 30.

“We expect the number of applications under the (black money) compliance window to go up during the last 2-3 weeks,” Revenue Secretary Shaktikanta Das said on Wednesday.

“I will not tell you how many people have filed applications under the compliance window. We believe that most of the applications will come towards the end of the period, which is September 30,” he said.

The government has come out with a 90-day compliance window, which ends on September 30, for entities to disclose their unaccounted money held overseas as the stringent Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015, has come into force.

Das said information provided under the compliance window would be kept confidential and would not be disclosed to anyone.

“The compliance window is to provide one-time opportunity to comply before we start taking stringent measures against the black money transactions,” he noted.

According to him, the government has already signed double taxation avoidance agreements (DTAAs) with 94 countries.

On a query about participatory notes (P-Notes), Das said the government does not “want to ban P-Notes overnight”.

The government is in consultation with Sebi, RBI and other stakeholders, including FIIs, on the issue, he said, adding that Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements on P-Notes have been improved by Sebi over the years.

In its latest report, the Special Investigation Team on Black Money had suggested that Sebi needs to further strengthen its monitoring mechanism to detect instances of the stock market platform being misused for tax evasion.

About market volatility, Das said stock market goes up and down as it is part of the business cycle while stressing that India is a bright spot on the world map.

“One positive feature on the global economic scenario today is that India is among a very few bright spots on the world map and the potential on India is far more positive compared with many other countries,” he noted.

Speaking to reporters at an event organised by chartered accountants’ body ICAI, Das also said the government is ready to comply with Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).

“We are ready in terms of information technology preparedness for FATCA and we have already signed the agreement on it with the US… (financial) information will start flowing in since September 30,” he added.

“Now, the information would flow continuously rather than the earlier existing regime where it was flowing on request.”

“We expect 8 per cent plus growth next fiscal, which is currently hovering at 7.5 per cent,” Das said.

According to him, the country’s tax to GDP ratio is currently at 10.3 per cent and the same can be as high as 12 per cent in future.

Effective tax rate in the country is currently at 23 per cent. There are companies that only pay MAT and there are a few others which pay corporate tax at the rate of 25 per cent, he added.