Gaurav Kenkre
G oa has a long history of people working abroad. Many Goans have spent years in the Gulf, the UK, Europe, on ships or elsewhere and later returned home. During those years, they may have opened foreign bank accounts, bought investments, taken insurance policies or purchased property abroad. The money may be completely legitimate. The problem can arise later if, after returning to India, an overseas asset which is required to be reported is left out of the Indian income-tax return.
New scheme
The Government has now introduced the Foreign Assets of Small Taxpayers Disclosure Scheme, 2026, or FAST-DS 2026. The Scheme is open from 16 August 2026 to 31 December 2026.
Why it matters
Consider a Goan who works in Dubai for fifteen years as a non-resident. He saves part of his salary in a Dubai bank account and buys some investments there.
He later returns permanently to Goa. At the appropriate stage, those foreign assets become reportable in his Indian income-tax return.
He continues filing returns but does not disclose them because he thinks: “The money was earned when I was an NRI, so there is no Indian tax issue.”
FAST-DS specifically deals with this type of situation. It provides a special category for a foreign asset acquired from foreign income while the taxpayer was a non-resident, but not declared in the relevant schedule after becoming resident. If the aggregate value of eligible foreign assets does not exceed Rs 5 crore, the amount payable under this category is a flat fee of Rs 1 lakh.
Two categories
This is very different from genuinely undisclosed foreign money. Where foreign income was taxable in India but was never offered to tax, or where a foreign asset has an unexplained source, another category applies. Here, the aggregate ceiling is Rs 1 crore and the payment is 30 per cent tax plus an additional amount equal to that tax — effectively 60 per cent.
This distinction is extremely important for returning NRIs. A person who lawfully earned money abroad during his NRI years and later failed only to report the resulting asset should not automatically assume that 60 per cent is payable. The source of the money, the residential status when it was earned and the history of the asset must first be established.
Beyond accounts
The Scheme is not limited to bank accounts. Depending on the facts, foreign shares, ESOPs or RSUs, brokerage accounts, mutual funds, insurance policies, property and other financial interests may be relevant. The CBDT FAQs on the Foreign Assets of Small Taxpayers Disclosure Scheme, 2026, specifically identify returning non-residents with foreign savings or insurance policies as persons who may benefit from the Scheme.
Old accounts
Old accounts should also not be assumed to be invisible. The Government has stated that information received under the Automatic Exchange of Information framework showed non-disclosure of foreign financial assets by a significant number of PAN holders. In other words, an account which a taxpayer has forgotten about may not have been forgotten by the tax system.
Before filing
This does not mean that every present or former NRI needs FAST-DS. Before filing, one should check the residential status for each relevant year, whether the asset was actually required to be reported, the source from which it was acquired, whether any foreign income was taxable in India and its value under the Scheme’s valuation rules. The Rs 1 crore and Rs 5 crore thresholds are aggregate limits, not separate limits for every asset.
FAST-DS 2026 gives a limited opportunity to regularise certain old mistakes with statutory protection. For many returning Goans, it may therefore be less a “black money” scheme and more a chance to correct an old reporting omission.
(The writer, a Fellow Chartered Accountant (FCA), specialising in Goods, Services tax, Transfer Pricing and Income tax, is the co-author of the book ‘Comedium of Industrial Policy for MSMEs in Goa’ released by ICAI)
