Efforts on to bring black money back to India: Thakur

Efforts are on to bring back to India black money deposited in various foreign banks by some Indians, Union minister Anurag Thakur said on Monday.

The Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs was addressing reporters here on the completion of 100 days of Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA)-II government.

"Process is on. The government is not sitting idle on this matter. It's a lengthy legal process. Treaties in this regard have been done with some foreign countries, the results of which will soon be come forth," the minister said.

Previous UPA government did nothing despite the Supreme Court order on black money issue, he said, adding that it was Modi government which set up a commission headed by Justice A P Shah in this regard, he added.

Switzerland has started sharing data about Indian account holders in Swiss banks under an automatic information exchange framework.

Banker and regulatory officials, however, pointed out that a large portion of the first tranche of data being shared by Switzerland relates to accounts that have been already closed due to fear of action.

Speaking about initiatives by the I-T department, the minister said, “Faceless assessment of income tax (IT) returns will be launched on Dussehra as Modi government believes not in 'Suspect All' but 'Respect All' by paying respect to tax-payers.”

Counting various achievements of Modi-II government during the first 100 days, Anurag Thakur said Articles 370 and 35A had been abrogated despite the NDA government did not have majority in the upper house of Parliament.

Similarly, the Modi government provided justice to the muslim women by making a law to hold instant triple talaq as illegal.

The minister said, “This is for the first time that any government since Independence has taken a number of historic decisions during the first 100 days.”

“Modi government was able to take historical decision in the first 100 days as the nation gave historical mandate for doing that.” He said “This is just the beginning and many more historical steps will be taken in the time to come.”