Parliament clears black money Bill

New Delhi, Parliament today cleared the Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets Bill providing for heavy penalties for stashing black money away in foreign accounts.
The Black Money Bill to deal with black money stashed abroad was passed by the Rajya Sabha with the government warning those having such assets to utilise the ‘compliance window’ or have sleepless nights once the global automatic information exchange system comes into effect in 2017.
Seeking to unearth unaccounted funds and assets stashed by Indians abroad, it provides for 120 per cent tax and penalty in addition to 10-year jail term.
It will become law after getting assent of the President.
Moving the Bill, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the law would for the first time levy tax in India on assets kept abroad. “For the first time, unlawful, undisclosed income abroad has been taxed under this law at a tax rate of 30 per cent with an additional 30 percent penalty on it,” he added.
Jaitley said the new law, with stringent provisions, will help “squeeze” black money, underlining that the option of ‘compliance window’, which may run for a few months, was not an amnesty scheme. “The world is no longer willing to tolerate tax havens which thrive in secrecy,” he said. Jaitley said the failure to meet the compliance timeline would attract an additional penalty of 90% for a total tax liability of 120% on the quantum of black money abroad.

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