Govt raises Rs2,451 cr from Rs4,900-cr black money declared by 21,000 people

The Income Tax Department has collected Rs2,451 crore by way of taxes from the Rs4,900 crore black money disclosed by 21,000 people under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojna (PMGKY), the window opened by the government for declaring money stashed away post demonetisation.

The scheme was launched in December last year by the government to enable people with black money to come clean by paying tax and penalty of 50 per cent.

"21,000 people disclosed Rs4,900 crore of black money under the PMGKY scheme that closed on March 31 this year. These are now the final figures," the official said, adding that the I-T department is now following up the legal processes with the declarants in few cases.

The scheme, launched in December last year by the government to enable people with black money to come clean by paying tax and penalty of 50 per cent, closed on 31 March this year.

The scheme was announced after Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared the demonetisation of two high-value currency notes of Rs1,000 and Rs500 on 8 November last year.

Revenue secretary Hasmukh Adhia had said that the response to the scheme has "not been so good," but, he said, it was only one of the three schemes, including the earlier Income Disclosure Scheme and the window for depositing cash in bank deposits post demonetisation.

Finance minister Arun Jaitley had said that the PMGKY was preceded by similar schemes and hence the response to it by the public should not be seen in isolation.

"Keep in mind that PMGKY in that financial year was not an isolated scheme. You first had the IDS, then you had people depositing cash in banking system knowing it would incur a tax liability and PMGKY was over and above that.

"When you look at the total amount of disclosures made, you have to look at all three of them collectively," the minister had said.

The PMGKY, which provided for payment of 49.9 per cent tax, surcharge and penalty, on the unaccounted money, was the one window for black money holders to come clean.

Besides the tax and penalty thereon, the scheme provided for a mandatory deposit of 25 per cent of the black money in a zero-interest account for four years.

The pre-demonetisation Income Declaration Scheme (IDS), which was open from 1 June 2016 to 30 September 2016 had led to 71,726 declarations disclosing undisclosed income of Rs67,382 crore.

The government had collected over Rs12,700 crore by way of tax under the IDS.