Tax refund totals Rs 65,000 cr so far this fiscal: Adhia

The Income Tax department has issued a record Rs 65,000 crore worth refunds so far this fiscal, Finance Ministry said today.
"Between April and now, CBDT has issued refunds to 1.98 crore assesses for an amount of Rs 65,000 crore. This is a record in itself," Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia tweeted.
In an initiative to reduce taxpayer grievances and enhance the taxpayer satisfaction, the Central Board of Direct Taxes had in December asked Central Processing Centre (CPC) - Bengaluru and the field officers to issue refunds of amounts less than Rs 50,000 expeditiously.
"In the last month's special drive, 18.28 lakh assesses whose refunds were below Rs 50,000 involving a sum of Rs 1,793 crore have been issued," Adhia said.

The guidance also provides background to field officers
on the procedure for incorporating a company in the BVI and shareholding / directors of BVI companies.

It also highlights that the details of shareholders of BVI company are not publicly available as well as cites unique legal provisions in BVI of "keeping shares registered in the name of nominee and not in the name of actual owner".
The Department wanted officers to seek agreement/ correspondence between actual owner/beneficial owner and nominee shareholders to assess if the offshore holdings are legal or illegal.
BVI licensed Mossack Fonseca is the law firm at the center of an unprecedented leak of confidential information - The Panama Papers.

With respect to demonstrating foreseeable relevance under India-BVI Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA), I-T Department recommended that while making initial EOI request all the relevant facts and background of the case are clearly brought out and the relevance of information for the purposes of administration and enforcement of Indian tax laws is described out in sufficient detail.
A large number of EOI requests are pending with the BVI and one of the main reasons for delay in receipt of information from BVI is that the clarifications sought by BVI are not provided in a timely manner.
"Such delays are viewed unfavourably by the BVI Competent Authority. Also, in such cases, requests are sometimes treated as 'closed' by the BVI Competent Authority for want of clarifications, depriving us of the valuable information which would have been useful for investigation/assessment," it said.

The Department said whenever a clarification is sought by the BVI authorities, the same must be provided within 15 days.
Investigators, probing the 'Panama Papers', have found that a number of Indians offshore asset investments have been made in the tax haven of British Virgin Islands (BVI).
Giving details of the PMGKY scheme, Adhia said
declaration of undisclosed income under it can be made by any person in the form of cash or deposits in an account with bank or post office or a specified entity.
"Tax at the rate of 30 per cent of the undisclosed income, surcharge of 33 per cent of tax and penalty of 10 per cent of such income is payable besides mandatory deposit of 25 per cent of the undisclosed income in the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Deposit Scheme 2016. The deposits are interest free and have a lock-in period of four years," he said.

The income declared under the Scheme will not be included in the total income of the declarant under the Income Tax Act for any assessment year.
Also, declarations made under the Scheme shall not be admissible as evidence under any Act like Central Excise, Wealth Tax or Companies Act. However, no immunity will be available under criminal acts.
Adhia said the provisions for levy of penalty for misreporting of income at the rate of 200 per cent of tax payable under section 270A of the Income Tax Act have not been amended and shall continue to apply in respect of cases falling under the said section.

The Taxation Laws (Second Amendment) Act 2016 has also amended the penalty provisions in respect of search and seizure cases. The existing slab of penalty of 10, 20 and 60 per cent of income has been rationalised to 30 per cent of income, if the income is admitted and taxes are paid. Otherwise a penalty of 60 per cent of income shall be levied.
Taxmann Director Rakesh Bhargava said that PMGKY is the only option left with tax-evaders as any detection of unaccounted income thereafter would attract tax ranging from 83.25 per cent to 137.25 per cent.
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Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank has issued operational guidelines for Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Deposit Scheme (PMGKDS), 2016.

According to the guideline, quoting PAN is mandatory for making declaration under the scheme.
"...If the declarant does not hold a PAN, he shall apply for a PAN and provide the details of such PAN application along with acknowledgement number," the RBI said.
Further, the application should be accompanied by an amount which should not be less than 25 per cent of the undisclosed income declared under Taxation and Investment Regime for PMGKDS tendered in the form of cash or draft or cheque or through electronic transfer.
Also, no commission/agency bank charges will be paid to the banks for accepting deposits under the scheme or for servicing the declarants.