President Pratibha Patil said on Friday that the war against black money should be fought on both domestic and international fronts so as to punish the tax evaders, who have even overseas links. She advocated better global co-operation through appropriate agreements on tax information exchange and mutual dialogue between countries to track down offenders taking shelter in other jurisdictions.
Addressing the concluding ceremony of celebrations for 150 years of the Income Tax Department, the President said, ?While undoubtedly the fostering of an environment of voluntary compliance will help, there is also a need for putting in place measures, through laws and procedures, to ensure that recalcitrant tax evaders are brought to book. The war against black money has to be addressed both domestically and through cross-border measures.?
The government has taken several measures to deal with the issue of black money. In May this year, it constituted a committee headed by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) chairman for strengthening laws to curb the generation of black money and examine the existing legal and administrative framework from a critical point of view.
In March, the government had signed agreements with three leading think-tanks ? NCAER, NIFM and NIPFP ? to conduct a joint study on unaccounted income generated inside and outside the country. The think-tanks were given 18 months to complete the study.
Besides, India has also renegotiated the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements (DTAAs) and finalised Tax Information Exchange Agreements with 44 countries to strengthen exchange of information relating to tax evasion, money laundering and other criminal activities. In the last two years, over R33,000 crore of mispricing has been detected in international trade and over R30,000 crore of tax evasion detected domestically.
