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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Rs 565 cr stashed in Geneva accounts: Report by Ritu Sarin

Rs 565 cr stashed in Geneva accounts: Report by Ritu Sarin

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published Published on Feb 13, 2012   modified Modified on Feb 13, 2012

The government’s draft report on black money — that has been circulated to members of the high level committee on black money for final comments — confirms that details of the HSBC accounts in Geneva have given the country its biggest black money trail. Citing this as an instance where the government has moved fast in tracing the coded account holders, the report states that the receipt resulted in information of undisclosed income to the tune of Rs 565 crore, against which taxes to the tune of Rs 181 crore have already been mopped up.

The report, however, does not mention whether prosecution would be launched against the Geneva account holders, just as it has been in the case of account holders in Liechtenstein.

In those bunch of 18 accounts, the report says that undisclosed income to the tune of Rs 39.66 crore was calculated and a tax demand of Rs 24.26 crore was raised. Against this, Rs 11.75 crore has been recovered and 17 persons prosecuted.

There are other nuggets of information in the report. For instance, the Indian authorities have passed on information to various countries about undisclosed wealth in as many as 350 other cases and that the FIU (Financial Intelligence Unit) has generated as many as 30,765 STRs (suspicious transaction reports), which are presumably being investigated by different agencies.

Curiously, giving just a solitary example of the extent of unaccounted money that can be mopped up domestically, the 16-page report says that agencies had recovered Rs 90 crore in bank accounts held by a coal miner and his family members in Ranchi.

No other details of the case are given.

Several other key suggestions and observations of member agencies of the black money committee do not figure in the index of final recommendations of the report. For instance, the Income Tax authorities have made out a case for the present six-year period for opening tax assessments of individuals under probe to around 10 years. The I-T Department has also asked for charitable organisations to come under its scrutiny.

The I-T Department, in fact, has come out with the longest list of recommendations. It has also discussed the mushrooming of tax-free zones and described them as “conduits to channelise unaccounted profits”. The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has suggested that there needs to be computer connectivity of revenue records, specially of properties owned by offenders.

The generation of black money through real estate, bullion and jewelry, however, does find mention in the final recommendation. The report states how “black money is used either in conspicuous consumption or in non-productive sectors such as real estate, bullion and jewelry etc. Surplus black money is also reinvested in the regular economy through laundering, or,in the financial markets....’’

The committee has noted how real estate probably constitutes the largest part of the black money economy in India and that regulation of the sector is fraught by many problems. This includes lack of a regulatory mechanism, different rates of stamp duty, non-scientific ways of fixing circle rates. The suggestion is thus for provisions relating to pre-emptive purchase of immovable properties to be introduced in Income Tax laws with modifications to reduce administrative complications and ease of compliance.

Similarly, bullion and jewellery sector has been described as both a “generator and consumer of black money” and the draft report says that while it has been made mandatory to obtain PAN or form 60/61 for purchase of bullion above Rs five lakh, reporting or enforcement of this provision has not been put in place. It has been recommended that the Income Tax Department expeditiously put these mechanisms in place, as well as similar rules drafted for purchase/sale of jewellery.


The Indian Express, 13 February, 2012, http://www.indianexpress.com/news/rs-565-cr-stashed-in-geneva-accounts-report/911415/


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