NEW DELHI: A day after Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley exhibited confidence of surpassing income tax targets, his ministerial colleague has stated that they will use information from other nations to check and curb tax evasion.
Minister of State for Commerce (Independent Charge) Nirmala Sitaraman, informed the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday that tax evasion will be checked and appropriate action will be taken against evaders.
“Effectively utilising the information received from treaty partners to combat tax evasion and avoidance,” Sitaraman said in a written reply.
On a question related to generation of black money, she said that there was no specific information to state that Global Participatory Notes (PNs) are one of the main causes for generation of black money.
Jaitley had (on Monday) said that income tax collections target for the fiscal will not just be achieved but surpassed in the current fiscal. The Budget has estimated IT collections to be `13.64 lakh crore.
Sitaraman said that the drive against tax evasion was an ongoing process, it was reported. Further, she said that when tax evasion is detected either through domestic or cross border transactions, appropriate action will be taken under direct tax laws including assessment of income, raising tax demand investigation and launching prosecution, it was reported.
In a separate reply, the Finance Minister had said that according to a Global Financial Integrity Report, it was estimated that a total of $213.2 billion had been shifted out of India through illicit means between 1948 and 2008.
While stating that the signing of multiple Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements (DTAAs) and Tax Information Exchange Agreements (TIEAs) with various countries would help their cause, he said, “Under these agreements, information as is foreseeably relevant for administration or enforcement of the domestic laws concerning taxes in specific cases can be received from our treaty partners.”
Sitaraman also said that tThe Corporate Affairs Ministry is looking at the possibility of having thresholds of the quantum of frauds at companies that need to be mandatorily reported by concerned auditors to the government.
In this regard, the government has sought suggestions from ICAI, the apex body for chartered accountants, Parliament was informed.