Reiterating that the drive against tax evasion was an ongoing process, the government today said searches conducted by the Income Tax department detected an undisclosed income of Rs 6,799 crore (Rs 67.99 billion) during April-December last year.
"In the searches conducted by I-T department during 2011-12 and 2012-13 (upto December 2012) undisclosed income of about Rs 14,017 crore (Rs 140.17 billion) and Rs 6,798.93 crore (Rs 67.98 billion) respectively were admitted by the persons searched and undisclosed assets of about Rs 905.61 crore (Rs 9.05 billion) and Rs 453.53 crore (Rs 4.53 billion) were seized," Minister of State for Finance SS Palanimanickam said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.
The Minister further said the surveys conducted by the department during 2011-12 and 2012-13 (upto December 2012) showed an undisclosed income of about Rs 6,572.75 crore (Rs 65.72 billion) and 8,254.41 crore (Rs 82.54 billion)
On the steps being taken by the government to check the generation and transfer of black money to foreign countries, the Minister said that India has been renegotiating its Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements with other countries to bring Article on Exchange of Information at par with international standards.
Moreover, it has also been expanding its treaty network by signing new DTAAs with many other countries and by entering into tax Information Exchange Agreements with many tax jurisdictions in its effort to facilitate the exchange of information and bring in tax transparency, he said.
Besides, legislative measures requiring reporting of assets (including bank accounts) held outside the country and providing for reopening of assessments upto 16 years for taxing undisclosed assets (including bank accounts) kept outside the country have been introduced by Finance Act, 2012 to take action in a more effective manner in such cases, he said.
