The Government is not contemplating a proposal to legalise black money. Drive against tax evasion is an on-going process. Appropriate action under the direct tax laws including assessment of income, raising tax demand, levy of penalty and launching of prosecution in appropriate cases is taken whenever tax evasion is detected. Searches and surveys conducted under the Income-tax Act have led to detection of valuable evidence of large scale tax evasion which has been brought into tax.

The Government has taken various steps under a multi-pronged strategy to deal with the issue of black money which includes the following:

• Taking appropriate legislative measures such as reporting of assets (including bank accounts) kept outside the country.
• Setting up institutional mechanism to deal with money generated through unlawful acts.
• Setting up of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to unearth black money stashed abroad.
• Jointing the global efforts to combat cross-border global tax evasion and tax fraud and to promote international tax compliance, including supporting the implementation of al uniform global standard on automatic exchange of information.
• Renegotiation of Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements (DTAAs) with other countries to bring the Article on Exchange of Information to International Standards, and expanding out treaty network by signing new DTAAs and by entering into Tax Information Exchange Agreements (TIEAs) with many tax jurisdictions to facilitate the exchange of information and to bring transparency.
• Joining the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters.
• Effectively utilizing the information received from treaty partners to combat tax evasion and avoidance.

This information was given by the Union Minister of Finance, Shri Arun Jaitley in written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.

Prohibition on legalising black money: government maintains enforcement, reporting and international information exchange to combat tax evasion. The Government affirms there is no proposal to legalise black money and stresses active enforcement-assessment, tax demands, penalties, prosecutions, and searches-alongside a multi pronged strategy of asset reporting, institutional mechanisms, a Special Investigation Team, treaty renegotiation, Tax Information Exchange Agreements, automatic exchange of information, and multilateral mutual assistance to combat cross border tax evasion.