With just a day left for the Income Declaration Scheme (IDS), 2016, to end, tax officials said the undisclosed incomes and assets revealed by individuals and businesses totaled to around Rs 30000-35000 crore.
This was 60-70% of the declaration amount of Rs 40,000 - 50,000 crore that the government was expecting under the voluntary four-month scheme that was launch in June 2016. On this, the government is likely to earn over Rs 15,000 crore.
"Based on the information of estimates of declaration we have from various cities, it (declaration amount) is expected to be somewhere around Rs 30,000 - 35,000 crore," said a Mumbai-based tax official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
He said disclosures in Mumbai alone was around Rs 10,000 crore. According to him, this figure could further shoot up on the last day.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government came out with its domestic black money scheme – Income Declaration Scheme – offering a chance to people with concealed income and assets to come clean by paying tax, penalty and surcharge of 45% on fair market value. The deadline for the scheme is till September 30 midnight.
Meenakshi J Goswami, Commissioner of Income Tax (I-T) – media and technical policy – Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), refused to give the exact number of declarations and the total amount declared.
She said the government had not set any target for IDS as it was a voluntary scheme.
"Since it is a voluntary scheme, there was no target. The total number declaration and figure will be revealed by the finance minister on October 1," she said.
According to her, there was no question of extension of the scheme which had been cleared by the Parliament, Finance Ministry and other authorities.
Under the scheme, payments by those who have declared their undisclosed income and assets can be made in four instalments till September 30, 2017.
The cut-off date for the first instalment of 25% is December 30, 2016, the next instalment of 25% can paid by March 31, 2017, the third by June 2017 and the final one by September 30, 2017.
Another tax official, based in New Delhi, said in comparison to the publicity blitzkrieg unleashed by the government, the response to the scheme was "lacklustre".
"After the wide publicity blitzkrieg with movie stars and lakhs of notices sent out for voluntary declaration to unearth undisclosed income, it is a lacklustre response," he said.
According to him, many were hoping for the scheme to be extended. He said if the rate of declaration picked up on the last day then the government could well reach its target.
"Since there is a facility for online declaration and payment, it is possible that it could pick up at the last minute," he said.
Also, the Income Tax Department accepting declarations without permanent account number (PAN) could also see the disclosure amount rise.
A Delhi-based tax official said that during the course of the scheme period, there were many confusions over validity of the demand or probe by the tax department.
For instance, there were many cases of notices issued to Indian residents, who had made payments to individuals living abroad, on the exact percentage of tax deduction at source (TDS) to be paid.
Under the older norm, the TDS in such instances was 10% if paid with PAN and 20% without PAN. However, this was changed to 10% in both cases now.
"The tax department were going after individuals who have paid 10% without PAN. However, that dichotomy has been resolved now. Many other such matters got sorted out during this period," the CBDT official said.
Amit Maheshwari, partner of Ashok Maheshwary & Associates LLP, said going by the estimates floating around, the scheme seemed to be a success.
"The estimates coming out are quite good and the scheme may turn out to be a success. I think the rise in the declarations in the last few days is partially due to the fact that people wanted to wait till the last to declare and are increasingly realising the consequences of not declaring. People have also got comfort that a lot of their concerns have been addressed by CBDT by issuing FAQs (frequently asked questions)," he said.
In 1997, the Voluntary Disclosure of Income Scheme (VDIS), where defaulters were given the opportunity to disclose their income at the prevailing tax rate, had seen over 3.5 lakh people come clean on their income and assets worth Rs 78000 crore.
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