NEW DELHI: As much as Rs 65,250 crore of black money was declared during the four-month compliance window of the Income Declaration Scheme+ that ended on September 30, finance minister Arun Jaitley said on Saturday.
Jaitley said 64,275 declarations+ were made in the four-month window and this figure could go up once all the declarations filed online and manually are compiled.
The money declared totals Rs 65,250 crore, of which 45 per cent would accrue to the government as tax and penalty.
The government had provided illegal income and asset holders a one-time opportunity to come clean by declaring their black money+ under the four-month window and pay 45 per cent tax and penalty.
Reiterating that the one-time window was not an amnesty scheme like the 1997 one, Jaitley said the tax collected in the 1997 Voluntary Disclosure of Income Scheme (VDIS) was Rs 9,760 crore with an average declaration of Rs 7 lakh
Briefing reporters on the scheme, which was available from June 1 till the midnight of September 30, the finance minister said the tax authorities were still tabulating the declarations, both in physical and electronic form.
"So this (declarations) could be revised upward once the full tabulation takes place," Jaitley said
That is a great achievement, and that is what is making this government unpopular. All the corrupt folks are very upset at this real unearthing of black money....
"Roughly, the declarations work out to Rs 1 crore per declarant. Some will be higher, some will be lower," he said, but ruled out any revelation of the names of the people who have availed of the scheme.
"We won't give any specific information on tax declarants.