The Cabinet on Tuesday sanctioned a new Bill that would give more powers to the tax department in tracking illegal wealth hoarded abroad.

This bill will help government keep a check on Black money. The Cabinet approved the new Bill on Tuesday evening.

The bill may be presented in Parliament during the ongoing session.

In his Budget speech on 28 February, Arun Jaitly had announced that the government would bring in a comprehensive law to curb the menace of black money by providing for a jail term of up to 10 years for hiding foreign assets and penalty up to 300 percent.

According to Arun Jaitly, under the law, concealment of income and assets and tax evasion in relation to foreign assets will be prosecutable with severe imprisonment of up to 10 years. He also added that the offence will be made non-compoundable and the lawbreakers will not be allowed to approach the Settlement Commission.

To curb the menace of black money in the country, the Finance Minister had proposed Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Bill. He had also proposed to modify the Income-tax Act to prohibit "acceptance or payment" of an advance of Rs 20,000 or more in cash for purchase of immovable property.

The Cabinet has also permitted the signing of an inter-governmental agreement between India and the US for implementing the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). According to sources, India is also joining the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement (MCAA) on Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information (AEOI). Till now, 52 countries have signed MCAA and AEOI.

During the G20 summit in Brisbane last year, PM Narendra Modi had supported AEOI and said that it will be helpful in getting information about illegal money stashed abroad.