Govt mops up blackmoney worth Rs 65,250 cr under Income Tax disclosure scheme, says Arun Jaitley

New Delhi: Assets worth Rs 65,250 crore have been declared by 64,275 people under the latest Income Tax Disclosure Scheme, with scope for some marginal upward revision once the full tabulation is completed, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced on Saturday.  According to a NDTV report, the current black money figure could well go on to beat the previous best of Rs 33,000 crore declared under the 1997 Voluntary Disclosure of Income Scheme (VDIS) launched by P Chidambaram. Nearly two decades back, the voluntary black money was declared by over 4 lakh entities the, the report said. Given the tax rate and penalty of 45 percent now, this can potentially fetch the government a little under Rs 30,000 crore. Briefing reporters on the scheme, which was available from 1 June till the midnight of 30 September, the finance minister said the tax authorities were still tabulating the declarations, both in physical and electronic form. “So this (declarations) could be revised upward once the full tabulation takes place,” Jaitley said, adding that the money collected would go into the Consolidated Fund of India and will be used for social security purposes. “So this (declarations) could be revised upward once the full tabulation takes place,” Jaitley said, adding that the money collected would go into the Consolidated Fund of India and will be used for social security purposes. “Roughly, the declarations work out to Rs 1 crore per declarant. Some will be higher, some will be lower,” he said, but ruled out any revelation of the names of the people who have availed of the scheme. “We won’t give any specific information on tax declarants.”