Govt approach on black money not adventurist, says Jaitley

New Delhi, Oct 18: Rejecting the charge that

has done a U-turn on disclosure of names of black money holders, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said the government will not be pushed into an act of adventurism and jeopardise the chances of getting cooperation of other countries in future.

The NDA government's approach on black money, the Minister asserted, "is doggedly persistent -- not adventurist." The Government, Jaitley said in his Facebook post, "stands committed to detect the names, prosecuting the guilty and making them public. We are not going to be pushed into an act of adventurism where we violate the treaties and then plead that we are no longer able to get the cooperation of reciprocating states.

"Such an approach may actually help the account holders. Adventurism will be short-sighted. A mature approach will take us to the root of the matter."

The Minister was apparently responding to the criticism over the government's refusal to disclose names of people having illicit accounts in foreign banks to the Supreme Court. In an application with annexures running into about 800 pages, the Centre contended in the apex court that it cannot disclose all information as the foreign countries with which India has double taxation avoidance agreement, have objected to making them public.

Critical of NDA government's approach on the black money, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said yesterday: "This is not only a hiatus between the words and deeds of BJP, but sheer hypocrisy and dishonesty with the public of India...One wonders whether his (Narendra Modi's) black money rhetoric was meant for pre-election audience." In the run-up to Parliamentary polls, BJP had promised to bring back black money kept by Indians in overseas banks while targeting the UPA government for not taking effective action on the issue.

PTI