Black money: Government mulling banning cash transactions above Rs 3 lakh

New Delhi, Aug 23: To crack down further on black money, the government is considering the recommendation of Special Investigation Team (SIT) to ban cash transactions above Rs 3 lakh, a top finance ministry official said here on Tuesday.

"The SIT recommendations are under consideration... Rs three lakh and above (limit on cash transactions) is under consideration," Rani Singh Nair, Chairperson, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said at an international tax conference organised by Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham).

"We have put a one per cent TCS (Tax Collected at Source) on cash transactions, we have made PAN (Permanent Account Number) quoting mandatory. All these aspects are also part of the SIT recommendations to stop the use of (illegal) cash in the economy," she said.

Regarding the tax treaties with other countries, Nair said the government is holding discussions on the renegotiated India-Singapore tax treaty.

India has renegotiated tax treaty with Mauritius while the one with Singapore is under discussion, she said.

"We are discussing it, we hope we will soon have a discussion with them (Singapore) as this is a bilateral treaty. We have to take the concerns of both the countries and then we will sign," Nair said.

On the issue of advancing the date of general budget presentation to January, she said that it will bring in more efficiency in the budget-making as two-three months of the financial year will not be lost in the process.

IANS