No proposal to launch gold amnesty scheme: Govt sources

NEW DELHI: The government is not considering any gold amnesty scheme as part of efforts to unearth unaccounted wealth stashed in the form of yellow metal, official sources said on Thursday.
The clarification comes amidst media report indicating the government move to launch amnesty scheme that will allow individuals and entities to declare their unaccounted gold holding without risk of being prosecuted.

There is no such gold amnesty scheme under consideration of Income Tax Department as being reported in media, the sources said.

As the budget process is on, typically these type of speculative reports do appear ahead of budget process, they said.

Reports indicated that scheme would try to overcome limited success of an earlier amnesty scheme Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY), also known as IDS-II, launched in 2017, post-the demonetisation exercise.

It was reported that the new amnesty scheme would allow gold hoarders a chance to come clean on investment made using black money by declaring their possession and paying tax on it.

The tax will have to be paid on entire value of gold declared by an individual that has been purchased without any receipt, as per the reports.

It is estimated that the total stock of gold held by Indians will be about 20,000 tonnes. However, the actual holding after taking into account unaccounted imports, ancestral holdings etc should actually be in the region of 25,000-30,000 tonnes.

As part of efforts to curb black money, the government's decided to demonetise old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes on 8 November, 2016.

As much as 99.3 per cent of the junked Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes have been returned to the banking system.

Of the Rs 15.41 lakh crore worth Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes in circulation on November 8, 2016, when the note ban was announced, notes worth Rs 15.31 lakh crore have been returned.