'Govt to get new study conducted on black money'

The government today said it will get a new study conducted on black money stashed by Indians within and outside the country by July next year.

The government has decided to get a fresh study conducted on unaccounted income and wealth, both inside and outside the country, unravelling the nature of activities engendering money laundering and its ramifications on national security, Minister of State for Finance S S Palanimanickam said in a written reply to Lok Sabha.

"The proposal (to conduct a study) was approved by the government in January 2011. The study is likely to be completed within a time frame of 18 months," he said.

Earlier the government had said three institutes have been selected to conduct study on black money stashed by Indians within and outside the country.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee while presenting the Budget, had expressed "serious concern" over the generation and circulation of black money and said that the government has adopted a five-fold strategy to deal with the menace.

Besides, Palanimanickam said that a tax information network (TIN) has been set up as a depository of important tax related information which can be accessed by the Income Tax department.

The TIN will basically comprise of data relating to tax deduction at source, payment of taxes and high value transaction reported in annual information returns.

He said that during the year, the government has concluded discussions on 11 Tax Information Exchange Agreements (TIEAs) and 13 new Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements (DTAAs), along with revision of provisions of 10 existing DTAAs.

Also, to effectively handle the increase in tax information exchange and transfer pricing issues, Foreign Tax Division of CBDT has been strengthened, he added.