NEW DELHI: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was on Monday cautious on a news report on new names of Indians having the Swiss bank accounts as he said they will be verified since many of these accounts could be genuine. He, however, stressed that nobody will be spared if stashing money abroad as seen from the vigorous follow-up of all cases since the Modi government took the reigns.
He told reporters here that the government can’t jump on those identified in a fresh HSBC list revealed by an international body of journalists as the authorities will have to check their veracity before taking any action. Names of big companies and political leaders figure in this list.
Jaitley was quite frank that the government could not proceed on the “Swiss leaks” reports until the authorities undertake verification as there may be many valid account holders and many names figuring in an earlier list secured from France in 2011. He disclosed that the government has already established contact with a whistle blower to get the names of all the undisclosed Indian accounts in HSBC’s Switzerland branch and other destinations. He, however, refused to divulge any details.
The Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) also took cognizance of the fresh list. After an impromptu meeting, its vice-chairman Justice Arijit Pasayat told reporters that it has already directed the Enforcement Directorate and Central Board of Direct Taxes that deals with the income tax evasion to get its information on the new list at the earliest as it has widened scope of the investigation.
“We will consider all new cases where there is evidence of black money… We will complete probe in all cases which are getting time barred by March 31,” Justice Pasayat said.
Jaitley said same process of verification has to be launched in the new list as one gone into 628 names that figured in an earlier HSBC list that was shared by the French government with India in 2011. He asserted that the government has put in all efforts towards digging out black money stashed abroad during the last seven months but the process of verification takes time.
He pointed out that prosecution has been already launched against 60 illegal overseas bank account holders while penalty proceedings against 350 other account holders has been initiated after completing the assessment. “Remaining assessment would be completed by March 31.”
Apart from these accounts, Jaitley said, the Revenue Department is in touch with the informants for more names. He said the 2011 list had some entries with only names while some accounts were not identifiable and hence it was taking time. “In some cases, which are quite general in nature, where verification of address and details are difficult and so the process is on,” he said.
He said he had met top Swiss authorities, including Switzerland’s finance minister, in Davos last month and it was agreed there that admission by assessees who may have parked their money in foreign banks would be considered as additional evidence to seek details.
An official statement issued after Jaitley’s interaction with the media, said out of the 628 Indians appearing in the first HSBC list, 200 were either non-residents or non-traceable, leaving 428 cases of residents which were found actionable. The net amount of suspected black money transactions in these 428 cases was about Rs 4,500 crore.
As many as 1,195 Indian names figure in the new global list of account holders of HSBC from 200 countries and their balances in the year 2006-07 with total balance of over US $100 billion. It includes some big names including Ambani brothers Mukesh and Anil, NRI businessman Naresh Goyal and former Maharashtra Minister Narayan Rane, but each one of them were quick to deny to have any illegal bank accounts abroad.
