Letters: Taxing black money

This refers to the debate titled “Do we need a black money amnesty scheme?” (February 9). There is no need for an amnesty scheme; India requires administrative and political will to curb the menace of black money.

Let’s first accept that black money is a “natural” consequence of the universal human tendency to resist any action that forces the individual to part with something he considers his own. To curb this, the government has to demonstrate that the revenue generated from taxes is properly utilised for the welfare of the poor. The government should also increase the threshold limit of individual income tax to, say, Rs 3 lakh, abolish all concessions and stringently scrutinise every taxpayer. It is found that the tax administration has still not been trained and is not willing to use the available database to effect an increase in tax compliance. When it comes to scrutiny, the discretionary powers of the income-tax assessing authorities are important but these powers are often misused to the disadvantage of revenue.

Narendra M Apte, Pune