The income tax department on Sunday warned citizens that non-payment of first tax instalment by November 30 will make declarations under Income Disclosure Scheme (IDS)- invalid.
For those who participated in the IDS scheme, a one-time opportunity (open from June to September) for domestic black money holders to make disclosures by paying 45% tax and penalty, the first installment of tax is due to be paid by November-end.
After the November installment of 25% of tax, it is to be followed by another installment of 25% by March 31, 2017 and the remaining sum will have to be paid by September 30, 2017.
"The first instalment of tax under the IDS is now due... Non payment of the instalment will render your declaration under IDS 2016 invalid," said the income tax department advertisement.
According to PTI, as many as 64,275 declarants have made disclosures amounting to Rs 65,250 crore under the scheme, with Rs1 crore being the sum disclosed by an average declarant. It estimates that the scheme would yield Rs 29,362 crore in taxes to the government.
This past week, on Friday and Thursday respectively, the government announced two new plans to widen the tax net on those hoarding unaccounted money either in cash or in their bank accounts. These plans were the most recent in the government surgical war on black money that began on November 8 after it announced its plan to ban old higher currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000.
The Union cabinet on Friday night approved an amendment to the Income Tax Act which would levy a 50 percent tax on disclosing unexplained bank deposits using the scrapped currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1000. The rule is applicable only till December 30 with a four year lock-in period for the remaining unaccounted cash, meaning the hoarders can get half their money back after a period of four years if they disclose their illicit deposit. For those people who do not voluntarily disclose their unaccounted cash , there will be a higher penalty of levying 90 percent tax.
Late on Thursday, Union Cabinet late on Thursday approved a proposal to make changes in the Income Tax Act to levy 60 percent tax on unaccounted bank deposits above a particular threshold limit.
