Govt's overdrive to check black money yielding results

Amid the threat of Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev to go on hunger strike on the issue of black money from June 4, the government today said the series of steps taken by it to unearth unaccounted wealth have started yielding results.

The income tax department, sources said, has detected unaccounted income of Rs 18,750 crore in the last two financial years and collected an additional Rs 22,697 crore as taxes by stepping up vigil on cross border transactions.

Besides, they added, the government detected mispricing of goods to the tune of Rs 33,784 crore in the last two years.

Called as transfer pricing in tax parlance, the mispricing has emerged as the main method of transferring illicit funds outside the country.

The success achieved in checking the menace of black money, sources said, can be attributed to the focused strategy adopted by the Finance Ministry.

The focus of the strategy includes stopping the transfer of funds to other countries; better realisation of taxes through special attention to cross broader transactions; unearthing the black money in the country and enhanced flow of information from foreign jurisdictions.

The Income Tax department, sources further said, has collected 7,704 pieces of information related to tax evasion and money laundering from different countries and is going ahead with investigations.

Meanwhile, senior ministers are trying to persuade Yoga Guru Ramdev not to go on hunger strike as the government is already taking steps to curb the menace of black money.