Bill on black money likely in ongoing Parliament session

Government is likely to bring a new law on black money during the ongoing Parliament session to effectively deal with the menace, Revenue Secretary Shaktikanta Das said on Wednesday.

"It is our endeavour to introduce the bill in the first leg of the Budget Session...before Parliament goes for recess," he said while addressing a CII event here.

The first leg of the ongoing Budget Session of Parliament ends on March 20.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his budget speech had announced that the government would come out with a new law to effectively deal with the black money stashed abroad.

The proposed law will have a provision of 10-year rigorous imprisonment for concealment of overseas assets.

Elaborating on the proposed law, Das said, "The (revenue) department will be empowered to attach assets of equivalent value in India. As a country, we need to curb this."

The new law, he added, would plug loopholes and strengthen the hands of revenue department in dealing with the assets stashed abroad.

Referring to the efforts being made by the revenue department to obtain information about persons mentioned in the HSBC list from Swiss authorities, Das said, "They have agreed to provide information in respect of cases which are independently investigated by our tax authorities and income tax department."

The Swiss authorities have also promised to provide all information in a time-bound manner, he said, adding "for the first time (they have agreed) to commence negotiations with India with regard to automatic exchange of information. "...they have also agreed to validate any information with regard to banking or non-banking information."

Photograph: Reuters