No amnesty for tax evaders; govt vows re-look at GAAR

The government today ruled out any tax amnesty scheme to unearth black money saying it goes against honest taxpayers even as it sought to send out a positive signal to investors by promising a re-look at the controversial GAAR shortly.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley also referred to demands of some states like West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha and Punjab for special packages and said government will take a view on the specific demands of the debt-ridden states after receiving the report of the Finance Commission, which is expected by the year-end.
He was speaking in the Rajya Sabha while winding up the debate on Finance Bill which was later returned by the Upper House, marking the completion of the budgetary process for 2014-15.

Minister of State for Finance Nirmala Sitharaman, while responding to specific issues raised by members, made it clear that government has no intention to give amnesty to tax evaders to unearth black money.
"The experience shows when you bring in VDIS (Voluntary Disclosure of Income Scheme), it discriminates against genuine tax payers. Those of you who pay taxes are disincentivised... it goes against honest tax payers... It may be may not be a conducive path for recovering more taxes," she said.
Referring to the tax proposals announced in the budget, Sitharaman said attempts have been made to provide relief to small and medium tax payers to encourage savings and promote growth despite the limited fiscal space.

Later responding to queries on implementation of the controversial General Anti-Avoidance Agreement (GAAR), Jaitley said, "After the budget process is over, we will look into it whether it is that date or some other date and whether some amendments are required or not and only then we will be able to make a final call on that."
GAAR, which aims to minimise tax avoidance for investments made by entities based in tax havens, is to come into from April 1, 2015, after being postponed once.
Announced by the previous UPA government in 2012-13 budget, GAAR had created nervousness among the investors.