Rs 65,250 crore disclosed through Income Declaration Scheme: Jaitley

NEW DELHI: Surpassing expectations, the Centre’s move to unearth black money received a robust response with the total amount declared under the Income Declaration Scheme totalling Rs 65,250 crore. Finance minister Arun Jaitley announced that 64,275 declarations had been made under the scheme, which was open for four months and closed on September 30.He said the number is expected to go up once all the declarations are verified. Based on the current declarations, the Centre is likely to get tax revenues of Rs 29,362 crore, of which Rs 14,700 crore will flow into its coffers by March and the rest in the next fiscal year.Those who have availed of the Income Disclosure Scheme can pay the amount in two instalments up to September 30, 2017. “It is an important step towards more and more becoming tax compliant,” Jaitley said.The declarations are seen as a major success for the government which had faced criticism from opponents who cited the muted response to a scheme for those with undisclosed wealth overseas last year, to claim that IDS is not going to fare better.“I compliment all those who chose to be tax compliant in IDS-2016. This is a great contribution towards transparency and growth of the economy,” Modi tweeted. He complimented Jaitley, revenue secretary Hasmukh Adhia and CBDT chairperson Rani Singh Nair for putting in a tremendous effort.The IDS came into effect from June 1, 2016. The total levy is 45% with tax, penalty and surcharge. Jaitley said IDS cannot be compared with the Voluntary Disclosure of Income Scheme of 1997, which yielded tax worth Rs9,760 crore. He said the effective tax rate for the scheme was in single digit as valuation was based on 1987 prices.Jaitley said the average declaration under IDS worked out to Rs 1 crore per declarant, suggesting that the scheme fared better despite a stiffer rate of 45%.Jaitely said 164 prosecution complaints had been filed and assessment worth Rs 8,000 crore done in the 175 HSBC cases, while authorities had detected Rs 5,000 crore of undisclosed deposits in foreign accounts made out of cases revelaed by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. Jaitley said 55 prosecution cases had been filed.“The quantum jump in the searches has resulted in seizure of Rs 1986 crore as well as undisclosed income of Rs 56, 378 crore in the last two and a half years,” Jaitley said. The finance minister said upgradation of IT capabilities of the tax department had led to non-intrusive methods of detection of evasion.He said Rs 16, 000 crore had been received as tax out of from the Non-filers of Monitoring System.