The information was revealed to the authorities by disclosures made in 2011 and 2013.
The Income Tax department has uncovered over Rs 13,000 crore in black money stowed away in overseas accounts, a report in The Times of India has said.
IT officials discovered this undisclosed income through two disclosures, which included information about 628 different bank accounts in overseas banks, made to the authorities -- one made in 2011 and the other, in 2013.
The government is going after black money in the country and stashed away by Indians abroad, with all guns blazing. For this, it is also in the process of signing information exchange agreements with several countries, to make sure Indians don't use financial instruments to hide their real income and evade taxes. In fact, by 2018, the Indian and Swiss governments expect to have a platform for automatic information exchange between the two countries for the same purpose.
Even within the country, the government has created an amnesty-like one-time compliance window, to give tax evaders and avoiders a chance to come clean and pay a surcharge and penalty amounting to 45% of the disclosed income. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while addressing the nation through Mann ki Baat on Sunday, warned his countrymen to make full use of the opportunity to come clean or face consequences later. He has assured that the identity of those who disclose their incomes shall remain confidential. The one-time black money compliance window opened on June 1 and closes on September 30. Individuals are expected to pay the surcharge and penalties by November.
In the first case, the information shared by the French government in 2011, revealed 400 cases where Indians had deposited cash with HSBC in Geneva. This threw up black money amounting to Rs 8,186 crore, the highest disclosure ever from offshore bank accounts, the report said. It also quoted an IT assessment report, which claimed that a tax demand of about Rs 5,377 crore was raised against these account holders till March 31 this year.
According to the report, the HSBC case threw light on 628 bank accounts, however, out of these 213 were not actionable, which means there was either no money in the bank account or it belonged to a non-resident India or the holder of the account was untraceable. The IT department has claimed that assessment of 398 cases has already been carried out.
Another disclosure in 2013, give the IT department a heads up about another Rs 5,000 stacked away in overseas accounts. These accounts were linked to 700 Indians, and the information was made public on the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIF), the report said.
So far, depending on the ICIJ reveal, 55 cases have been filed so far. In the HSBC case, 75 prosecution cases have been registered, the report said.
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