Committee set up to strengthen ways to curb black money

The Government has constituted a committee under the chairmanship of the chief of Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) to examine ways for strengthening laws to curb generation of black money and prevent its transfer abroad, besides recovering such illegal assets.

The committee will consult various stakeholders and submit its report within six months, a statement from the Finance Ministry said. "The Government has constituted a committee under the chairmanship of Chairman, CBDT, to examine ways to strengthen laws to curb the generation of black money in the country, its illegal transfer abroad and its recovery," it said.

The committee will examine the existing legal and administrative framework to deal with generation of black money through illegal means. Among the likely measures are to declare wealth generated illegally as national asset, enact or amend laws to allow confiscation and recovery of such assets and providing for exemplary punishment against its perpetrators.

Besides the CBDT Chairman, other members of the committee would include CBDT Member, Legislation and Computerisation (L&C), Director of the Enforcement Directorate, Director General of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Director General (Currency), CBDT Joint Secretary (FT&TR) and Financial Intelligence Unit - India (FIU-IND) Joint Secretary.

CBDT's Commissioner of Income Tax (CIT)(Investigation) would be the committee's Member Secretary.