Panel to look into amnesty for black money holders

'Undisclosed money of Rs 15,000 cr discovered'

“I have appointed a group to look into it (of amnesty scheme) and to make suggestions and recommendations to me,” Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee told a press conference here on Tuesday.

He enlisted steps taken by the government to get details of illegal deposits made in foreign countries. The minister did not reveal the nature of the group and its members.

“There are two views over amnesty. There is a view that the scheme will do injustice to the honest tax payers,” he added.  Mukherjee revealed that India has, among measures to find illegal deposits,  concluded negotiations on 10 new tax information exchange agreements with the Bahamas, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Isle of Man, Cayman Islands, Jersey, Monaco, St Kitts and Nevis, Argentina and the Marshall Islands out of 22 identified countries and jurisdictions.

The country has also started negotiations with 65 countries to broaden the scope of the article on the exchange of information to specifically allow exchange of banking information and information on taxpayers not covered by double taxation avoidance agreement (DTAA).

"As on date, negotiations have been completed with 10 existing DTAA countries for updating the article. Agreed texts have been initialled. Thirteen new DTAAs have also been finalised where exchange of information of the article is in line with the international standards. In short, negotiations/ renegotiations of DTAAs with 23 countries have been completed," Mukherjee said.

He said information can be obtained through two instrumentalities—DTAA and exchange of taxation information agreement—and the government has already amended pacts with 23 countries to get information on banks.

However, he was not clear if the agreements enabled information to be provided to India within a specific timeframe. Mukherjee said undisclosed money worth Rs 15,000 crore   has been discovered over the last 18 months.

In the same period, the Directorate of International Taxation has collected taxes worth Rs 34,601 crore and the Directorate of Transfer Pricing has detected “mispricing” of Rs 33,784 crore which has prevented transfer of money equal to that amount outside India.