Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has assured the Lok Sabha today that the black money stashed abroad will be brought back without waiting for long. India is already in touch with the French government to get more information in this regard.
He was replying to a discussion on the Finance Bill 2014-15, which was passed later. He said, across the world, people have started raising voice against money laundering. This led to sharing of information between the countries. He said the government has already initiated several measures, including the setting up of a Special Investigation Team, to bring black money back.
The Finance Minister said, the approach of the government will be to resolve tax related disputes and end arbitrariness. He said, the government has extended a simplified tax structure to domestic investors and expanded the concept and the functioning of the Settlement Commission so that lakhs of crores of rupees are not blocked.
This will help in settling tax related disputes. The Finance Minister said, the government has given statutory recognition to a consultation mechanism that can be followed up by Central Board of Direct Taxes guidelines.
Mr Jaitley said, the NDA government is not a high tax government and it will not impose taxes retrospectively. He said, a high tax government will not encourage business and industrial activity leave alone creating job opportunities.
Talking about taxes foregone which are running into more than five lakh crore rupees, Mr Jaitley clarified that this should not be confused as taxes due and not charged. He said, the rebates given to individual tax payers are considered to be as taxes foregone.
The Finance Minister assured that the government will bring a legislation on the implementation of Goods and Services Tax this year which will help the GDP growth benefiting both the Centre and the states.
He said, the Indian economy is doing well and capital markets have already reached a record high. The Finance Minister underlined the need for expanding the economic activity and said there is a need to fight slowdown. He said the budgetary proposals are aimed at providing a road map to strengthen country’s economy.
