Indian Govt. to deploy officials in tax havens to check evasion

Mumbai, (PTI) The income tax department will soon post 10 of its officers in tax haven nations to collect information about alleged tax evasion by Indians from these countries, an official in the finance ministry said.

Concerns have been raised in the recent past over suspicion of round tripping or routing of Indians’’ illicit money back into the country through tax havens.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Member Prakash Chandra said that his department has formulated some strategies to deal with tax havens and the government will soon be posting 10 officers in “important countries” to help curtail the menace.

“The officers have been shortlisted and some approvals are necessary (before they are posted),” Chandra added.

Indian agencies are said to have increased their oversight after they noticed a significant surge in venture capital funds coming from Mauritius in sectors like telecom and real estate, which have been under close scrutiny in recent times for money laundering. Earlier this week, CBDT Chairman Sudhir Chandra said that the Finance Ministry was in favour of re-negotiation of the tax treaty with Mauritius so that India could have access to banking details besides tax-related information vis-a-vis that country. To trail alleged black money, India has concluded discussions on 11 Tax Information Exchange Agreements (TIEAs) and 13 new Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements (DTAAs), along with revision of provisions of 10 existing DTAAs in the last fiscal.