The Income Tax (IT) Department has already got more than Rs100 crore under the Income Disclosure Scheme (IDS) in Odisha. And officials said the figure may cross Rs200-crore mark by Friday when the IDS will come to end.
The amnesty scheme for tax defaulters has resulted in the collection of about Rs35,000 crore across the country. For the last two weeks, the Government stepped up efforts to make people with undisclosed income own up and pay up to escape action.
The IDS 2016 comes as onetime relief for people with undisclosed income to declare their concealed earnings by paying tax, penalty and surcharge of 45 per cent of fair market value. The Government has repeatedly said the deadline won’t be extended beyond September 30 midnight.
Incidentally in Odisha, those allegedly involved in various kinds of scams like chit fund, mining, etc., benefited from the secrecy offered under the scheme.
The response to IDS in the State has been quite encouraging with more and more people taking advantage of the scheme before it closes on Friday midnight, IT official sources said.
A top IT official said on condition of anonymity that the collection under the scheme had touched Rs100 crore last week. The IDS came as a godsend opportunity for several persons in the State who had minted crores of rupees from illegal mining, fraudulent chit funds, coal block scams, etc.
Interestingly, the IT authorities here have gathered crucial data that include “information” relating to cash deposits in banks, share market transactions, “bogus” long-term capital gains, property transactions, “fake” donations and payment of capitation fee in cash to get admission in medical colleges.
The constant threat of punitive measures for failing to come clean under the scheme also had sent strong signals to the erring persons to take shelter of the IDS.
Friday would be very hectic for the IT authorities as they expect a large turnout of the scam-tainted persons, real estate builders, jewellers, film producers, construction companies and business men, sources said.
There had been lukewarm response to the IDS initially. At the beginning of this month, the IT department had received disclosures of just over Rs1,000 crore in the country disappointing the authorities.
However, aggressive publicity, threat of punitive measures, constant raids on IT defaulters and people with black money in the aftermath of closure of IDS, non-extension of deadline appear to have created panic among tax defaulters with scores of them relenting to come under the IDS, officials said.
