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Journalism of Courage
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NEW DELHI, July 22: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) will audit all Voluntary Disclosure of Income Scheme (VDIS) declarations after a long and protracted battle with the Union Finance Ministry over the issue. However, the CAG will receive only the actual figures of the declarations with the names of the beneficiaries of the scheme in code according to the Finance Ministry offer to the CAG.
The offer was conveyed in a departmental order (DO) sent by the Finance Ministry last week. The CAG is yet to accept the coded beneficiary offer holding out for access to the entire gamut of VDIS declaration. VDIS has been the most successful amnesty scheme so far with a record tax collection of Rs 10,500 crore.
The Finance Ministry has maintained that making the VDIS declarations available to the CAG violates the spirit of the scheme which promised complete amnesty along with secrecy. The CAG on the other hand has cited its statutory status and maintained that it has always had access to other amnesty schemesin the past. A CAG official commenting on the issue said, "Their (Finance Ministry) stand is completely illogical. What is so special about the VDIS declarations that puts it outside the purview of statutory audit?"
Official sources reveal that the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has taken a decision to conduct a special audit in the VDIS scheme before making it available to the CAG. The audit is expected to identify all the disputed declarations and cases where their is departmental proceedings, adjudication and other proceedings. These accounts will be identified and then be "completely" made available to the CAG.
The decision was taken in a meeting held last week but the commissioners across the country are yet to receive the circular conveying the decision.
The Finance Ministry’s climb-down comes after the CAG practically made access to VDIS declarations a prestige issue. Sources reveal that the CAG wrote several letters to the Revenue Secretary, N K Singh, demanding that the VDIS declarationsbe entirely made available to the statutory body.
After the volley of letters, officials in the Ministry wrote back the coded beneficiary deal.
The Finance Ministry maintained that while they respected the CAG’s purview making available the VDIS records would mean reneging on the Government’s commitment made to the declarers under the scheme. The Finance Ministry DO pointed out that they had taken "unprecedented measures" to ensure the confidentiality of the scheme. The DO added that if the names were "inadvertently made public" future schemes would be greeted with scepticism.
