The response to the government's Income Declaration Scheme (IDS) for black money has been "beyond expectations", DS Saksena, Principal Chief Commissioner of Income-Tax Department, said even as he did not outline any numbers."The finance minister is having a press conference tomorrow at 3:00 pm. He will disclode all the numbers," Saksena said in an interview with CNBC-TV18.
Below is the verbatim transcript of DS Saksena’s interview to Latha Venkatesh & Manisha Gupta.
Latha: If you can start with telling us how much money the country has got because of these declarations?
A: Country has got a large amount of money. I am not at liberty to disclose. I was in a video conference with the finance ministry, right at this moment I have come out from the conference. I can tell you that that the response has been very satisfactory. It is even beyond our expectations and it is likely to go up.
Latha: A number, is it Rs 25,000 crore, Rs 30,000 crore?
A: We are not at liberty to disclose numbers. The finance minister is having a press conference tomorrow at 3:00 PM. He will disclode all the numbers. However, till then no numbers.
Latha: Any chance of extension?
A: No chance of extension. It is over -- rather it will be over tonight at 12.
Manisha: We hear the surveys have been much higher, eight times higher than what we saw in the last year or last couple of years for that matter and the last 24 hours have seen Rs 20,000 crore of money come in and the last day today is expected to see Rs 10,000 crore come in as well. Also, the survey throws up that Mumbai has been the highest tax payer here followed by Gujarat and Rajasthan. Would you want to throw some light on that?
A: Mumbai is leading and the number of surveys has increased. However, let me tell you the background also. The central board of direct taxes sent around 7 lakh letters. We in Mumbai sent more than 1 lakh letters to people but most of the letters came back. People refused them; they refused to respond to those letters. So, we were all forced to go out in the field and contact those people.
Let me tell you the information with us was very explosive, people had booked bogus long-term capital gains; they had purchased property without informing us. This kind of information they had made huge cash deposits. So, we went out in the field to verify it and that is why the number of surveys was large because taxpayers had not been responding voluntarily.
Latha: Now that you know how to get these surveys done, you have a database by which you move; even after the income declaration scheme (IDS) should we see you pursue this path?
A: We have got certain concrete information about many taxpayers. So, we will be verifying it. It would be better if those taxpayers come forward even after the IDS is over and respond to our queries because if they don’t respond then we will be forced to come out and confront them.
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