Black Money: Government Says Taking Steps on Whistleblowers' Information

New Delhi: Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha informed the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday that the government was taking specific steps to deal with the issue of black money stashed abroad on the basis of information provided by whistleblowers. 

"Certain persons, claiming to be whistleblowers, have made offer of assistance in investigation of black money stashed away abroad," Mr Sinha said.

"The government has taken specific steps in this regard. Disclosure of the steps taken, at this stage, would not be in the interest of further investigation," he added. 
     
In another reply, Mr Sinha said although there was no official estimate of the amount of black money stashed abroad, the government has initiated various steps to deal with it, including setting up of a special investigation team (SIT) and enacting a new law to deal with black money hidden in off-shore accounts.
     
Mr Sinha also said 669 prosecutions related to evasion of taxes were launched in the 2014-15, up from 641 in the year-ago period.

On whether people have been detained over undisclosed income in foreign countries, the minister said there was no provision for detention for such cases under the Income-tax Act, 1961.
     
"However...prosecution complaints under applicable provisions of the Income-tax Act, 1961 have been filed in appropriate cases," Mr Sinha added.

The new black money law, he said, has come into force from July 1, 2015 and contains more stringent provisions of penalty and prosecution (rigorous imprisonment up to 10 years) with respect to undisclosed foreign income and assets.