‘Those who did not take advantage of black money window will regret’

New Delhi, Oct 2 (PTI) Committing to fight the menace of black money, Finance Ministry today said that those who have not taken advantage of the compliance window to declare their unaccounted overseas assets and come clean will “regret.”

“Fight against black money is a part of economic reforms.

As a country we can’t allow ghost economy to undermine real economy and growth,” Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das said in a tweet.

Only 638 declarations for a total overseas wealth totalling Rs 3,770 crore were made during the 90-day compliance window under the Black money (undisclosed foreign income and assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015.

“Black money compliance window: Those who did not declare have underestimated the power of information exchange. Will regret,” tweeted Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das.

The one-time compliance window, under which persons having unaccounted overseas wealth could declare their assets and come clean by paying tax and penalty of 60 per cent, ended on September 30.

“Black money compliance window: Those who did not declare have done it at their own peril and will regret,” said Das, who was Revenue Secretary when the scheme was formulated, said in another tweet.

As regard sharing of information, the government signed an agreement with the US on implementing the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), which allows automatic exchange of tax information between the two countries with effect from September 30.

Secondly, the multilateral Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) agreement, which will come into force from 2017, will help the government is getting tax related information from several jurisdictions across the world.

As on March 18, 58 jurisdictions (including India) have committed to share information under AEOI by 2017. A further 36 jurisdictions have committed to share by 2018, including jurisdictions which have beneficial tax regime.