India targets black money with new assets disclosure law

June 8, 2012

Black_Money

New Delhi, June 8: Filing of income tax returns has become more complicated for those with assets overseas as the government has introduced a compulsory disclosure law for Indians in the country and abroad aimed at tracing black money.

“The overseas assets will not be taxed, but it is an additional hassle for taxpayers,” said Neeru Ahuja, a partner at Deloitte Haskins and Sells.

Apart from the additional hassle, Ahuja said, expatriates see it as an intrusion on their privacy.

“Many people are complaining. Expatriates who have come here to work even for a short period are required to disclose assets back home,” Ahuja said.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) recently issued the new tax return forms for 2011-12 or assessment year 2012-13, mandating disclosure of foreign assets. On the form, a new section labelled ‘FA’ (Foreign Assets) is included.

Individuals with taxable income exceeding Rs1 million (Dh66,750) and Indians and expatriates with assets overseas must file their returns electronically.

“Resident individuals are required to file tax returns in India irrespective of whether they have income chargeable to tax in India or not,” said Ahuja.

As per the Finance Bill 2012, residents with assets outside India are required to file tax returns electronically giving details of such assets.

In other words, income is now not the only criteria for filing a tax return. Residents with assets abroad are now required to submit their details irrespective of whether they have income generated in India.

The government has made disclosure of foreign assets mandatory in a bid to trace black money, which has become a big political issue.

Although there is no official figure, some private research puts illicit money held by Indians at $1.4 trillion (Dh5.14 trillion).

The government says the mandatory disclosure of foreign assets is aimed at preventing the generation and circulation of unaccounted-for money and so that undisclosed assets can be tracked.

However, such a disclosure could cause undue hardship to individuals, especially the family of an expatriate, who qualify as residents due to their physical presence in India.

For example, spouses of foreigners who work in India or non-resident Indians returning to India will need to disclose their foreign assets.

“It is not clear how the additional information may be used, but it will cause hardship to genuine tax payers,” said Ahuja.

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News Network
February 4,2020

New Delhi, Feb 4: Senior BJP leader and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday accused Delhi's ruling Aam Aadmi Party of not implementing the central government's schemes in the national capital.

Addressing an election rally in Moti Bagh, he also sought to allay fears over the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), assuring the gathering that the legislation will not take away anyone's citizenship.

Singh alleged that the Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government did not do anything in the last five years.

The AAP had promised to add 5,000 buses to the fleet of the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC), but instead the number has come down by 1,000, he claimed.

The Union minister said the AAP dispensation did not implement central schemes in Delhi fearing that the popularity of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government will grow among Delhiites.

Pension schemes and the Centre's flagship health insurance scheme, Ayushman Bharat Yojana, are some of those that the Kejriwal government did not allow to be implemented in Delhi.

On the anti-CAA protests, Singh said that the opposition parties have been spreading "lies" about amended citizenship law and the National Population Register (NPR).

"The CAA will not take away anyone's citizenship. The opposition parties are spreading lies about the CAA. There should be no such politics over this. Some people are trying to write the history of the country with the ink of hatred," he said.

The culture of India is such that it considers the entire world one family, he said.

Delhi goes to polls on February 8. The results will be declared on February 11.

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News Network
March 25,2020

Mumbai, Mar 25: Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope on Wednesday confirmed that five people from a family in Sangli and four others from Mumbai tested positive for coronavirus, taking the total count to 116, which is the highest in any state of the country.
"The current count of COVID19 patients in the state of Maharashtra is 116. In Sangli, 5 people from one family are identified as positive due to contacts and 4 people from Mumbai are identified as positive due to travel history or contacts," Tope tweeted.
The state Health Minister informed that out of 116 people, 14 people have recovered and are in the process of being discharged from the hospitals.
"14 people from these have been recovered and are in the process of being discharged from the hospitals," he said in another tweet.
Meanwhile, the Sangli district administration in Maharashtra has released contact numbers for citizens to get home delivery of essential items during the 21-day lockdown to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
The police personnel and district administration will be in charge of facilitating delivery for the essential commodities during the lockdown.
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Wednesday confirmed 539 positive cases of coronavirus in the country.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on Tuesday announced a 21-day lockdown in the entire country effective from midnight to deal with the spread of coronavirus, saying that "social distancing" is the only option to deal with the disease, which spreads rapidly.

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Agencies
May 26,2020

In a startling revelation, cybersecurity researchers have claimed that a hacker has posted personal details of nearly 2.9 crore Indian job seekers at one of the hacking forums on the Dark Web for free.

As part of the regular sweep over the Deep Web and Dark Web, researchers from cybersecurity firm Cyble came across an interesting item, where a threat actor posted 2.3GB (zipped) file on one of the hacking forums.

"The leak actually has a lot of personal details of millions of Indians Job seekers from different states," Cyble said in its blog on Friday.

This breach includes sensitive information such as email, phone, home address, qualification and work experience etc from job seekers spanning across states, from New Delhi to Mumbai and Bengaluru. 

Cybercriminals are always on the lookout for such personal information to conduct various nefarious activities such as identity thefts, scams, and corporate espionage.

"It appears to have originated from a resume aggregator service given the sheer volume and detailed information," it added.

Cyble indexed this information at ‘AmIbreached.com; – Cyble's data breach monitoring and notification platform.

Cyble researchers have identified a sensitive data breach on the dark web where an actor has leaked personal details of nearly 29 million Indian job seekers from various states. 

"Cyble's team is still investigating this further and will be updating their article as they bring more facts to the surface,” it said in a statement.

Cyble said it has acquired the leaked data. 

The same cyber security firm earlier exposed that Bengaluru-based edtech firm Unacademy was hacked.

According to Cyble researchers, nearly 22 million Unacademy user accounts were affected and the data was dumped and sold on Dark Web.

'We would like to assure our users that no sensitive information such as financial data or location has been breached," said Hemesh Singh, Co- Founder and CTO, Unacademy, in a statement.

In April, hackers sold personal data of a whopping 267 million Facebook users for just Rs 41,500 (approximately 500 Euros) that includes email addresses, names, Facebook IDs, dates of birth and phone numbers.

No passwords of the 267 million Facebook users were exposed by the hacker, according to Cyble.

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