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Black money held in gold, land under radar: FM

Last Updated 21 March 2017, 16:52 IST

The government is taking separate action, independent of demonetisation, on black money held in gold and land or real estate, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.

“Black money being invested in gold and black money being invested in land are separate issues. That does not immediately get tackled by this (demonetisation), for which separate action, independently, is being taken,” Jaitley said during Question Hour.

“Now, if you see the entire series of actions that the government has taken over few years, including the enactment of the Benami Law, today, we are on the verge of implementation of GST which in businesses is going to make generation of cash more difficult,” he said.

“Similarly, several restrictions are being imposed on purchase of luxury items itself as far as the requirements under the Income Tax Act are concerned. So, when you see all these collective steps which are taken, the impact of this in further consolidation of black money and conversion into assets, is also going to be felt in the long run by the society,” Jaitley said.

Jaitley also said that the government has completed investigation against persons named in HSBC and Liechtenstein banks for blackmoney stashed abroad .He said an assessment totalling around Rs 15,000 crore in the two cases has been made.

Investigation against 628 persons named in the HSBC list of Indians holding foreign bank accounts has been completed, an assessment to the tune of Rs 8,437 crore in 409 of these cases made and 190 prosecutions filed against them, he said.

The government has also assessed each of those named by the Liechtenstein bank and an assessment of around Rs 6,500 crore of undeclared income by them has been made, he said.
 
Jaitley was responding to a question by senior MP Ram Jethmalani on the issue of black money.

There were heated exchanges and arguments after the 94-year old lawyer and suspended BJP member asked the government whether it had made any effort to get the names of blackmoney holders offered by Germany.

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(Published 21 March 2017, 16:52 IST)

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