The Income Tax department has rejected an astonishing ₹2 lakh crore disclosure by a Mumbai family as well as the controversial ₹13,860 crore by an Ahmedabad businessman under the Income Disclosure Scheme that closed in September and a probe is on against them to determine the intention behind their false claims.
Meanwhile, the government has revised upwards the total illicit wealth disclosed in the one-time window to ₹67,382 crore as against ₹65,250 crore estimated earlier.
“Among the declarations received, there were two sets of declarations of high value which were not taken on record in the above figure because these declarations were found to be suspicious in nature being filed by persons of small means,” the Finance Ministry said in a statement today.
A family of four declarants namely, Abdul Razzaque Mohammed Sayed (self), Mohammed Aarif Abdul Razzaque Sayed (son), Rukhsana Abdul Razzaque Sayed (wife) and Noorjahan Mohammed Sayed (sister), who were shown as residents of Flat no. 4, Ground Floor, Jubilee Court, 269-B, T.P.S-III, Linking Road, Bandra (W), Mumbai, filed a total declaration of ₹2 lakh crore, it said.
The other declaration was filed by one Mahesh Kumar Champaklal Shah resident of 206, MangalJyot Tower, Jodhpur Gram Satellite, Ahmedabad for ₹13,860 crore.
“Therefore, after due consideration, the Income Tax Department decided by 30th November, 2016, to reject these two sets of declarations of ₹2 lakh crore and ₹13,860 crore respectively. The Department has since commenced enquiries against these declarants to determine the intention behind these false declarations,” it added.
On October 1, it was announced that declarations totalling ₹65,250 crore were received from 64,275 declarants, subject to reconciliation. After final reconciliation the revised figure of actual declarations received and taken on record was ₹67,382 crore which had been made by 71,726 declarants.
The revised figure will fetch government a little over ₹30,000 crore direct tax revenue.
In case of the Mumbai family disclosure, the statement said, three out of the four PAN numbers were originally in Ajmer which were migrated to Mumbai in September 2016, where the declarations were filed.
Shah meanwhile has threatened to disclose the names of politicians and businessmen for whom he says he was acting as a front.
Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram in a tweet said: “There is a ₹13,860 crore hole in the ₹65,000 crore IDS! How many more holes.”
The statement said these declarations from Mumbai and Ahmedabad were kept pending for investigation about the genuineness of the same and were not included in the total value of declarations announced on October 1.
After due enquiry it was found that these declarants were persons of suspicious nature and very small means and the declarations could have been misused, it said.
The Department has commenced enquiries against these declarants, it said.
IDS was announced in the Budget under which declaration of undisclosed income or asset could be made by agreeing to pay 45 per cent of the declared amount as tax, surcharge and penalty.
The declaration widow of four-month ended on September 30.
Now on the final declarations, the government will get ₹30,321.9 crore in tax and penalty.
Government had given the option of paying tax amount in two instalments up to September 30, 2017.
Half or ₹15,160.9 crore is to be accrued in the current fiscal. The first installment of 25 per cent has already come as the last date for payment was November 30.
Last year, under a similar scheme for foreign black money holders, 644 declarations of undisclosed foreign income and assets were received, and just ₹2,428 crore was collected in taxes.
A total tax of ₹9,760 crore was collected under the Voluntary Income Disclosure Scheme (VIDS) amnesty scheme brought by Chidambaram in 1997.
While IDS is not an amnesty scheme, VDIS provided blanket amnesty, he said. Taxation under IDS is charged at the rate of 45 per cent while the effective rate of tax in the 1997 scheme was in single digit.