The government has raised tax and penalty demands of over Rs 35,105 crore and filed 163 prosecution complaints between July 1, 2015 and March 31, 2025, under the foreign black money law, minister of state for finance Pankaj Chaudhary told Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.
Furthermore, 1021 assessments have been completed under the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015 (BMA) till March 31.
Under the law, the government has recovered Rs 338 crore towards tax, penalty and interest between July 1, 2015 and March 31, 2025, the minister said.
“The tax demand gets crystallised conclusively when appeals, if any, preferred before CIT(A), ITAT, High Court and Supreme Court are decided,” he said.
Disclosure requirements
Under the Black Money Act, 2015, it is mandatory for assesses to disclose all foreign assets and income in specified schedules while filing I-T returns. Any non-disclosure attracts a penalty.
Since the black money law came into force on July 1, 2015, 684 disclosures involving undisclosed foreign assets worth Rs 4164 crores were made in the one-time three-month compliance window, under BMA, from July 1, 2015, to September 30, 2015. The amount collected by way of tax and penalty in such cases was about Rs 2476 crores, he said.
Global data
India receives information about foreign assets and income from over 100 foreign tax jurisdictions. Whenever any instance of tax evasion is detected, appropriate action under direct tax laws, including searches, surveys, enquiries, assessment of income, levy of taxes, penalties, etc. and filing of prosecution complaints in criminal court, wherever applicable, is taken.
Switzerland, seen as a haven for parking of illicit funds, has been providing annual financial information about Indian residents since 2018 under the Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) framework. The first data transmission to Indian authorities occurred in September 2019, and the exchange has continued since then.