Short answer: a declaration is final. Section 137 bars rectification, revision, and any set-off or relief in an appeal or other proceeding on what you declare. Section 138 makes the amount paid non-refundable. Both are easy to miss, and both matter more than the headline rate.
This post exists because the decision to declare is usually framed as a price comparison — 60% against 120% — and that framing leaves out what the 60% actually buys and what it costs you besides money.
The two provisions that close the door
Section 137 — the declarant may not claim:
- rectification or revision of any assessment under the Income-tax Act, 1961 or the Black Money Act in respect of what is declared, and
- any set off or relief in any appeal, reference or other proceeding relating to such assessment.
Section 138 — the amount paid is non-refundable.
Together they mean the declaration is not a filing that can be corrected, improved on, or partially unwound. It is a settlement.
Which is why the valuation comes first
The ordinary instinct with a filing is to get it in and fix problems later. That instinct is wrong here, in both directions.
Overvalue the asset and there is no route back — Section 138 forecloses a refund of the excess. On a bank account valued at the sum of every deposit since opening, an error in the deposit run is not a rounding difference; it is a permanent overpayment. The basis is set out in how FAST-DS values a foreign bank account.
Undervalue it and you are exposed to Section 134(3): a declaration is deemed invalid if any material particular is found to be false at any stage, or if any condition of the scheme is violated. "At any stage" carries no time limit. And by the time invalidity is found, the payment has already been made and is not coming back.
There is a limited cushion — Rule 5(2) allows up to a 20% variance between the declared fair market value and the value later determined, for assets other than a bank account, without that difference by itself invalidating the declaration. Bank accounts get no such tolerance, because they are valued by arithmetic rather than judgment.
If you have an appeal running
This is the interaction most likely to be overlooked.
Section 137 reaches relief or set-off in an appeal, reference or other proceeding relating to an assessment on what has been declared. So where an appeal is live on the same assets or the same income, its expected value is not a separate matter to be pursued alongside a declaration — it is part of what the declaration gives up.
That belongs in the decision, quantified, before anything is filed.
Note the different rule for pending proceedings generally: Section 141 provides that where a declaration is made and proceedings under the Income-tax Act, 1961 or the Black Money Act are pending on the same income or assets, the Assessing Officer takes the declaration into account in finalising the assessment. And where Black Money Act proceedings for a year are already completed, Section 140(b) puts that year outside the scheme altogether.
The payment clock runs after the declaration, not within it
Section 135:
- The amount payable is communicated by an order within one month from the end of the month in which the declaration is made.
- You then have two months from the end of the month in which that order is received.
- A further period of up to two months is available, with simple interest at 1% for every month or part of a month.
The practical consequence: a declaration filed in late December has its payment obligations falling due in 2027. The window closing on 31 December is the deadline for declaring, not for paying — and the cash flow needs planning on that basis rather than the calendar one.
What the finality actually buys
Set against all of the above, the case for declaring is not only the lower charge.
The scheme settles the declared assets and income at 60% of value, against the Black Money Act's 120%. But the Black Money Act also has no closing date. An undisclosed foreign asset stays open indefinitely; the penalty exposure does not lapse, and it is not proportionate to the tax involved.
What a declaration buys is the end of it. That is worth more than the rate difference in most cases where the facts are clean — and it is worth considerably less where they are not, which is exactly why the analysis belongs before the form.
The full scheme is in FAST-DS 2026; eligibility and the limits in the Rs 5 crore cliff; and the position for someone currently abroad in can an NRI use FAST-DS.
This is a working reference, not the statute. A declaration is irreversible — confirm the position against the Act and the Rules, on your own facts, before making one.