‘Undisclosed foreign income: 14.8K cr tax demand raised,’ Finance Minister informs Lok Sabha

In cases related to deposits made in unreported foreign bank accounts in HSBC, undisclosed income of more than Rs 8,468 crore has been brought to tax and penalty of over Rs 1,294 crore has been levied, Nirmala Sitharaman noted.

The minister said that Swiss authorities had conveyed that the Swiss National Bank (SNB) annual banking statistics should not be used for analysing deposits held in Switzerland by residents of India. (File Photo)

Assessments have been completed for 368 cases, raising tax demand of Rs 14,820 crore under the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman informed the Lok Sabha on Monday in a written reply.

In cases related to deposits made in unreported foreign bank accounts in HSBC, undisclosed income of more than Rs 8,468 crore has been brought to tax and penalty of over Rs 1,294 crore has been levied, she noted.

She also said 648 disclosures involving undisclosed foreign assets worth Rs 4,164 crore were made in the one-time three months compliance window, which closed on September 30, 2015, under the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015, adding that the amount collected by way of tax and penalty in such cases was about Rs 2,476 crore. The data provided by the Finance Minister is up to May 31, 2022.

On queries regarding money deposited in Swiss banks by Indians, Sitharaman said: “There is no official estimate of the amount of money deposited by Indian citizens and companies in Swiss banks”.

However, she said some recent media reports have stated that funds of Indians in Swiss banks have risen in 2021 as compared to 2020.

These media reports have also mentioned that these deposits do not indicate the quantum of the alleged black money held by Indians in Switzerland.

The minister said that Swiss authorities had conveyed that the Swiss National Bank (SNB) annual banking statistics should not be used for analysing deposits held in Switzerland by residents of India.

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Further, they have said that to analyse Indian residents’ deposits held in Switzerland, another data source should be used, which is called “locational banking statistics”, which the SNB collects in collaboration with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS).

As per the same media reports, Sitharaman added, ‘locational banking statistics’ of the BIS showed a fall of 8.3 per cent during 2021 in deposits by Indian individuals in Swiss banks.