An Income Declaration Scheme (IDS) was announced in the Union Budget 2016-17 under which declaration of undisclosed income or asset could be made by agreeing to pay 45% of the declared amount as tax, surcharge and penalty. The scheme closed on 30th September, 2016.
On 1st October, 2016, it was announced that declarations totalling Rs 65,250 crore were received from 64,275 declarants, subject to reconciliation. After final reconciliation the revised figure of actual declarations received and taken on record was Rs 67,382 crore which had been made by 71,726 declarants.
Among the declarations received, there were two sets of declarations of high value, which were not taken on record in the above figure because these declarations were found to be suspicious in nature being filed by persons of small means. A family of four declarants namely, who were shown as residents of Mumbai, filed a total declaration of Rs two lakh crore. Three out of the four PAN numbers were originally in Ajmer, which were migrated to Mumbai in September 2016, where the declarations were filed. The other declaration was filed by one Mahesh Kumar Champaklal Shah resident of Ahmedabad for an amount of Rs 13,860 crore.
These declarations from Mumbai and Ahmedabad were kept pending for investigation about the genuineness of the same and were not included in the total value of declarations announced on 1st October, 2016. After due enquiry, it was found that these declarants were persons of suspicious nature and very small means and the declarations could have been misused.
The Department has commenced enquiries against these declarants to determine the intention behind these false declarations.