PAN Card to be mandatory for cash transactions beyond threshold, says Jaitley

The Centre is at an advanced stage to make it mandatory for people to furnish PAN (Permanent Account Number) Card details for cash transactions beyond a certain limit to check generation of domestic black money.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, in a Facebook post, said the government is at an advanced stage in considering the requirement of furnishing PAN Card details if cash transactions beyond a certain limit are undertaken.

He said the monitoring regime of the income tax department has been strengthened and its capacity to access information and apply technology driven analytical tools to expose evasion has been enhanced.

Stressing that bulk of black money is still within India, Jaitley said, "There is a need to change the national attitude so that plastic currency becomes the norm and cash an exception."

Noting that high taxation regime of past encouraged tax evasion, Jaitley said, "The government is committed to make tax rates reasonable and create deterrence to use of unaccounted money. He said compliance window declarants can sleep well and others with undisclosed foreign assets will be subjected to new black money law.

The finance minister said, to make India a more investment friendly destination, the government in the 2015 Budget announced that the rate of corporate tax would be brought down to 25 percent over the next four years and most exemptions, other than those which incentivise savings, would eventually be phased out.

Jaitley said the Government has formulated a conscious strategy to deal with the menace of black money. He said, a total peak balance of about 6,500 crore rupees in list of accounts in LGT Bank, Liechtenstein and HSBC, Geneva has been assessed.

He said the government has signed an understanding with the US wherein United States and India would disclose to each other any real time transaction in accounts with financial institutions, by its citizens in foreign territories.