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NEW DELHI, November 2: Declarations of Rs 1,000 crore from Bangalore and Rs 400 crore from Hyderabad under the Voluntary Disclosure of Inco...

NEW DELHI, November 2: Declarations of Rs 1,000 crore from Bangalore and Rs 400 crore from Hyderabad under the Voluntary Disclosure of Income Scheme (VDIS) have put the Southern states at the top of the disclosure sweepstakes. And, this despite the fact that Maharashtra and the Western region account for almost 60 per cent of the revenue normally generated.The separate declarations were made recently with the Bangalore ones coming in September and early this month, while the Hyderabad declaration was made in September to the concerned unit.

All the declarations made under VDIS are being monitored by a Central cell which alone has access to the identities of the parties concerned. Sources say that several politicians who have some charges pending against them have also made inquiries since they wanted to avail of the scheme.

Officially the ministry has claimed a satisfactory response to the scheme specially after some clarifications on the clauses of VDIS were issued and a series of meetings with trade and industry were held across the country by department officials in August. Within the ministry, a target of Rs 4,500 crore to Rs 5,000 crores has been set for the scheme which ends on December 31. The trend of declarations has surprised the officials. They say that they the maximum declarations were expected from Maharashtra, Gujarat and Punjab among the States and a large chunk from metros including Delhi. They add that the Southern trend in the VDIS scheme also confirms Karnataka, primarily Bangalore’s status as the silicon valley of the country, which has the one of the highest tax accessions in the country.

Sources reveal that department “surveys” have also been stepped up in major metros in an effort to push declarations. They say that after several surveys in Mumbai, the people concerned have resorted to the plea that they were about the make a declaration to the department under the VDIS scheme.

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