Sizable dip in Indian black money parked abroad: FM

TIL Desk/Business/Ahmedabad-Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said the Narendra Modi government’s “activism” against black money in the last two years has resulted into a “sizable dip” in illegal assets stashed abroad by Indians. He also said the action being initiated by G-20 countries coupled with “technological intervention” will make it difficult to keep black money both at home and outside the country.

“Today there is a panic among people who hold illegal assets outside the country. If you take from 1947 to 2014, the cumulative effect of all steps taken would not be even minuscule percentage of what the government has done in the last two years,” Jaitley said. He was speaking at a programme here to sensitise people on government’s Income Declaration Scheme (IDS) whereby tax evaders are given opportunity to disclose their unaccounted income and pay 45 per cent of it, which is applicable till September 30.

“Recent reports have indicated that there is a sizable dip in Indian holdings outside the country,” the minister said. “If you consider the kind of activism in the last two years, the first decision that PM Narendra Modi took was to accept the direction of the Supreme Court and constitute SIT with two retired SC judges,” he said.