The government said it is still examining the reports submitted by a team of experts who had conducted studies to come up with a figure.
The Finance Ministry on Friday said there is no official estimate of the amount of black money in the country or overseas. The government said it is still examining reports submitted by the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, the National Council of Applied Economic Research and the National Institute of Financial Management.
This is not the first time that the government has admitted to not having any account of the amount of black money. On July 22 and May 3, it had made similar statements. Both times, it had said that it is scrutinising reports submitted by experts, and detailed the measures it had taken to take tax evaders to task.
This included the window it gave citizens to declare their undisclosed income, and international treaties it has negotiated to stop double tax exemptions. Finance Minister Jaitley on October 1, a day after the tax declaration scheme closed, had said that 64,275 people had declared assets worth Rs 65,250 crore.
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