Under PMGKY, 21,000 disclosed ~4,900-crore black money

Black money worth ~4,900 crore was disclosed by 21,000 people under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojna (PMGKY), the stashed money declaration window announced by the government after demonetisation, an official said on Thursday.

The income tax (I-T) department, a top government official told PTI, has collected tax of ~2,451 crore till now from these declarations. “21,000 people disclosed ~4,900 crore of black money under the PMGKY scheme that closed on March 31 this year. These are now the final figures,” the official said, adding the I-T department is now following up the legal processes with the declarants in a few cases.

The scheme was launched in December last year by the government to enable people with black money to come clean by paying tax and penalty of 50 per cent. It closed on March 31 this year.

The scheme was announced after Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared the demonetisation of two high-value currency notes of ~1,000 and ~500 on November 8 last year.

Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia, after the closure of the PMGKY window, had said the response to the scheme had “not been so good”.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said the PMGKY was preceded by similar schemes and hence the response to it by the public should not be seen in isolation.

“Keep in mind that PMGKY in that financial year was not an isolated scheme. You first had the IDS, then you had people depositing cash in banking system knowing it would incur a tax liability and PMGKY was over and above that. When you look at the total amount of disclosures made, you have to look at all three of them collectively,” the minister had said.

The scheme was launched in December last year by the government to enable people with black money to come clean by paying tax and penalty of 50 per cent