The government may soon announce a gold amnesty scheme with an aim to target black money, CNBC-Awaaz reported citing unidentified sources. The government is mulling a plan to fix a holding limit of the yellow metal under the scheme, the report also said. Those holding unaccounted gold beyond the given limit will be penalised by the government. Under the scheme, the individuals will have to disclose unaccounted gold beyond a certain threshold and pay taxes on the disclosed value, according to the report.
Similar to the income tax amnesty scheme, the gold amnesty scheme will be open for a particular period of time after which the offenders will have to pay fines on holdings without bills. Earlier in 2014-16, the government had floated gold amnesty schemes.
Watch: Gold refinery MMTC-PAMP
India is one of the largest buyers of gold globally. The government in the recent past introduced various measures to counter an increase in gold import by hiking duty on it and other precious metals so as to make the yellow metal and jewellery expensive in the domestic market. The country’s gold imports dipped about 3 per cent in value terms to $32.8 billion during FY19.
Income declaration scheme, 2016 was an amnesty scheme introduced by the Modi government as a part of the 2016 budget to unearth black money