Names of tax defaulters to be made public

The committee will consider proposing a reward scheme for informants who supply information about such tax defaulters and which results into collection of the outstanding demands.

The other point in the terms of reference is to propose a scheme regulating such outsourcing to outside agencies for its administration by the field formation.The committee shall submit its report within 2 months.Earlier, it was noticed that there is a huge outstanding demand which is not recoverable due to reasons like assesses not being traceable and there were no assets available for recovery.Mukherjee said the amendment of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) has tremendously widened the scope of money laundering investigations.During such exercise involving a number of investigations, the Directorate has initiated overseas enquiries and forwarded letters of request to foreign administrations for not only collection and verification of information but also for obtaining evidence.

The provisions of PMLA also allow for causing attachment of the tainted proceeds located abroad by requesting the foreign administrations through letters of request issued by competent courts.In the proposed Direct Taxes Code Bill, he said for the purpose of levy of wealth tax, taxable assets have been defined to include deposits in banks located outside India in the case of individuals, unreported bank deposits in the case of others, interest in a foreign trust of any other entity and any equity or preferential shares held in a controlled foreign company.

The General Anti-Avoidance Rule (GARR) has been incorporated to deal with aggressive tax planning devices used to circumvent tax laws. PTI