Govt says examining reports on black money estimation

New Delhi: Government Tuesday said reports received from three reputed institutes -- NIPFP, NCAER and NIFM -- on estimation of unaccounted income and wealth are being examined.

Currently, there is no official estimation of the amount of black money in the country and taken outside.

The government had commissioned a study, inter alia, on estimation of unaccounted income and wealth inside and outside the country through National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP), National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) and National Institute of Financial Management (NIFM).

"Reports received from these institutes are under examination of the government," Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha informed the Rajya Sabha in a written reply.

The Minister also said that government has taken several measures to "effectively" deal with the issue of black money, particularly the money stashed abroad.

He further said that whenever the cases involving remittance of black money abroad or illegal remittance of money abroad are detected, appropriate action is taken by relevant law enforcement agencies like Income Tax Department, Enforcement Directorate and CBI.

"Such actions include action against banks and financial institutions if their involvement is found," Sinha said.

In another reply, he said that India is now a leading force in the efforts to forge a multi-lateral regime for proactive sharing of financial information known as Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) which will greatly assist the global efforts to combat tax evasion.

He also said no authentic estimate of black money of Indians in foreign banks is available with the government.

On the basis of information collected, action under direct tax laws to tax unaccounted money belonging to Indians in foreign banks is taken in appropriate cases, the Minister added.