Lok Sabha Question No. 1813 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2017-03-10
Subject: Elimination of Black Money
Ministry: FINANCE
Asked by: RANJANBEN BHATT

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF FINANCE DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.1813

## TO BE ANSWERED ON FRIDAY, THE 10 TH  MARCH, 2017 PHALGUNA 19, 1938 (SAKA)

## ELIMINATION OF BLACK MONEY

## 1813: SHRIMATI RANJANBEN BHATT:

## Will the Minister of FINANCE be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  the  Government  proposes  to  take  steps  to  curb  the  generation  of  black  money  in future;
- (b) if so, whether the Government has taken any step in this regard;
- (c) if so, the details thereof; and
- (d) if not, the reasons therefor?

## ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE FOR FINANCE

## (SHRI SANTOSH KUMAR GANGWAR)

(a)  to  (c):    Action  against  black  money  is  an  on-going  process.  Such  actions  include  policy-level initiatives,  effective  enforcement  action  on  the  ground,  putting  in  place  robust  legislative  and administrative frameworks, systems and processes with due focus on capacity building and integration and mining of information through increasing use of information technology.

Recent major steps in this regard include -(i) Constitution of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Black Money under Chairmanship and ViceChairmanship of two former Judges of Hon'ble Supreme Court, (ii) Enactment of a comprehensive law -'The Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income a nd Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015' to specifically deal with black money stashed away abroad, (iii)  Constitution  of    Multi-Agency  Group  (MAG)  consisting  of  officers  of  Central  Board  of  Direct Taxes (CBDT), Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) for investigation of recent revelations in Panama paper leaks, (iv) Proactively engaging with foreign governments with a view to facilitate and enhance the exchange of information under Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements (DTAAs)/Tax Information Exchange Agreements (TIEAs)/Multilateral Conventions, (v) Proactively furthering global efforts to combat tax evasion/black money, inter  alia ,  by joining the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement in respect of Automatic

Exchange of  Information  (AEOI)  and having  information  sharing  arrangement  with  USA  under  its Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), (vi) Renegotiation of DTAAs with other countries to bring the Article on Exchange of Information to International Standards and expanding India's treaty network  by  signing  new  DTAAs  and  TIEAs  with  many  jurisdictions  to  facilitate  the  exchange  of information  and  to  bring  transparency,  (vii)    Enabling  attachment  and  confiscation  of  property equivalent  in  value  held  within  the  country    where  the  property/proceeds  of  crime  is  taken  or  held outside the country by amending the Prevention of Money-laundering Act, 2002 through the Finance Act, 2015, (viii) Enactment of the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Amendment Act, 2016 to amend the  Benami  Transactions  (Prohibition)  Act,  1988  with  a  view  to,  inter  alia,  enable  confiscation  of Benami  property  and  prosecution  of  benamidar  and  the  beneficial  owner,  (ix)  Initiation  of  the in formation technology based 'Project Insight' for strengthening the non -intrusive, information driven approach for improving tax compliance, and (x ) Launching of 'Operation Clean Money' on 31st January 2017  for  collection,  collation  and  analysis  of  information  on  cash  transactions,  extensive  use  of information  technology  and  data  analytics  tools  for  identification  of  high  risk  cases,  expeditious  everification  of  suspect  cases  and  enforcement  actions  in  appropriate  cases,  which  include  searches, surveys,  enquiries,  assessment  of  income,  levy  of  taxes,  penalties,  etc.  and  filing  of  prosecution complaints in criminal courts, wherever applicable.

(d): Does not arise in view of reply above.

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