The Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced on Saturday that the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) had under the Income Disclosure Scheme, 2016 received total disclosures of Rs. 65,250 crore in the form of cash and other assets.
But since some disclosures that were received manually still remain to be tabulated and verified, the figure could be revised upward. The four-month window under the scheme for declaring undisclosed income or black money that had escaped assessment closed on Friday at midnight.
Jaitley told a media conference on Saturday that the disclosures received were “significant, given the average disclosure is of about Rs. 1 crore.” In all, 64,275 declarations were filed online as well in printed copies of the prescribed form.
The scheme had provided a one-time opportunity to black money holders who had not paid full taxes in the past to come clean by declaring their domestic undisclosed income and assets by paying tax plus penalty at the rate of 45 per cent.
No target for disclosures or collections from the scheme had been set for the CBDT, he said, adding the government stands to mop up about Rs. 29,000 crore in taxes and penalties.
