New Delhi, Nov 10: The government will unveil more measures to tackle the menace of black money, including restrictions on the use of cash for high value transactions, a top official said on Wednesday, a day after the Modi administration scrapped high denomination currency notes.
"There will be many more follow-up steps. Of course, it is a continuous drive and we have been taking different measures at different times," revenue secretary Hashmukh Adhia said.
"More such measures will come, what will be the cut-off we don't know," Adhia said when asked whether the government was planning to impose restrictions on cash deposits of over Rs 3 lakh. The SC-appointed special investigation team (SIT) had recommended that curbs be imposed on cash deposits+ of over Rs 3 lakh. The limit is aimed to ensure that transactions are made using credit or debit cards, cheques or drafts which can be tracked.
"The timing of the government move was decided at the highest level for a variety of reasons. We thought of all options but, ultimately, this is the best option the PM found. It was also because of travel plans. He is travelling to Japan (from Thursday)," Adhia said. The government preferred to announce the measure mid-week instead of a weekend.
He said the government had taken several measures including setting up an SIT, accepting some of its recommendations, enacting the foreign black money law, Income Declaration Scheme, benami law, scrapping currency notes of the old series and imposing excise duty on gold.
Adhia said the new move would ensure that more money flowed into the formal system. "Use more mobile wallets, plastic money," he said.
"The number of people who are paying taxes is low and even those who pay, prefer to pay bare minimum, less than the actual," he said.
Adhia made it clear that tax authorities would not immediately or randomly seek answers on cash deposits that people make now.
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