Special drive led to declaration of foreign assets, income of Rs 30,300 crore, Says Nirmala Sitharaman

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman made the announcement on Tuesday that more than 30,000 taxpayers have either corrected their income tax return or filed belated returns, reporting unreported foreign assets and income totaling around Rs 30,300 crore.

Enumerating the effect of the initiative, she said, "We have conducted a 'nudge' campaign wherein we nudged tax payers to voluntarily come out with their Foreign Income and Assets. SMS and E-mails have been sent to approximately 19,501 specially selected taxpayers for them to view their Income Tax Returns filed by them for 2024-25 based on data available to Income Tax for foreign deposits etc." Sitharaman said so while speaking on the Lok Sabha during the course of discussion of the Finance Bill 2025.

The campaign resulted in high compliance, with 11,162 of the 19,501 assessed taxpayers updating their returns and filing information in the Schedule Foreign Assets Form. In total, they reported foreign assets of Rs 11,259.29 crore and other foreign income of Rs 154.42 crore.

Moreover, 883 taxpayers made changes to their income tax returns to update their residential status from resident to non-resident for the year 2024-25.

Sitharaman stressed that the campaign caused a "ripple effect," as another 13,516 taxpayers reported foreign assets of Rs 7,564 crore and foreign income of about Rs 353 crore in their updated returns.

"Cumulatively, this modest push led to reporting of foreign assets worth Rs 29,208 crore and foreign income of Rs 1,089 crore (Rs 30,297 crore) in Schedule FA (foreign assets) by 30,161 taxpayers," she added.

The finance minister welcomed the success of the campaign, emphasizing that it motivated tax assessees to report their foreign properties and pay overdue tax liabilities.