Dhan wapsi' from June 1: Govt begins 4-month amnesty for black money

New Delhi: The Centre on Saturday announced that its amnesty scheme for declaring domestic black money would start from June 1. Individuals willing to declare their black money in the country will have to pay tax and a penalty, totalling 45 per cent, to come clean.

The Income Declaration Scheme, 2016, comes on the heels of a similar scheme launched by the Modi government last year for black money or undisclosed assets in foreign countries.

The scheme launched last year did not have the desired results as the government collected only Rs 2,428 crore in taxes after around 644 declarations were made under the one-time black money compliance window for those who had black money parked abroad.

The domestic black money amnesty scheme came under fire from the Opposition with Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi calling it the Modi government’s ‘Fair and Lovely scheme’.

The amnesty scheme will be valid for four months — June 1 to September 30 — for making declarations. Payments towards taxes, surcharge and penalty will have to be made by November 30.

Scheme applies to undisclosed income

The four-month window for declaring domestic blackmoney will open on June 1 and those opting to come clean by paying 45 per cent tax and penalty will not be subject to scrutiny and enquiry by tax department.

The scheme will apply to undisclosed income whether in the form of investment in assets or otherwise, pertaining to financial year 2015-16 or earlier, the ministry said.

“Under the scheme, income as declared by the eligible persons, would be taxed at the rate of 30 per cent plus a ‘Krishi Kalyan Cess’ of 25 per cent on the taxes payable and a penalty at the rate of 25 per cent of the taxes payable, thereby totalling to 45 per cent of the income declared under the scheme,” the ministry said. Declarations can be filed online or with the jurisdictional Principal Commissioners of Income-tax.