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Confidentiality won’t be compromised, says govt

To curb speculation on social media about the region wise list of Income Declaration Scheme (IDS), Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on Monday clarified that it was committed to strict confidentiality under IDS.

 “CBDT clarifies that no official list of region wise declarations has been issued. The Income Tax Department is committed to maintaining strict confidentiality of declarations made under the Income Declaration Scheme 2016. CBDT requests the general public not to pay any heed to such fraudulent messages circulating on social media,” said an official.

Undeclared income and assets to the tune of Rs 65,250 crore were unearthed under Income Declaration Scheme. While announcing the results of the IDS on October 1 in Delhi, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had stressed that no break-up of these declarations on the basis of trades, cities and states would be released in order to ensure absolute secrecy with respect to the identity of the declarants.

However, the principal opposition party took a dig at the black money declared under IDS. Former Commerce Minister Anand Sharma said the government was not able to meet the black money target it had set.

“Government of India had set a target of Rs 2 lakh crore. What has now been declared under the IDS is well short of the set target,” said Sharma. Asked on the government claim that twice the amount of black money was declared in 2016 as compared to 1997, Sharma replied, “It is a strange claim because in 1997, India’s GDP was 300 billion and now India’s economy has grown eight times more. So, the black money declarations should have been eight times more.”

The central government had offered a one-time chance to black money hoarders. To escape legal tangles such holders were given a chance to pay tax and penalty of 45% to come clean.
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