ICIJ, HSBC list: I-T dept detects Rs 19,000 crore black money
"72 prosecution complaints in 31 such cases have been filed before the criminal courts.
The Income Tax department has over Rs 19,000 crore black money following the investigations on global leaks including HSBC account holders in Switzerland, the government said on Friday.
Finance minister Arun Jaitley said investigations into information, put into public domain by the ICIJ (International Consortium of Investigative Journalists), pertaining to about 700 Indians allegedly linked to offshore entities based in no tax or low tax jurisdiction, have led to detection of more than Rs 11,010 crore of credits in undisclosed foreign accounts.
"72 prosecution complaints in 31 such cases have been filed before the criminal courts," he informed the Lok Sabha.
The government constituted a multi-agency group (MAG) in April 2016 for speedy investigation in the cases of Indians allegedly having undisclosed foreign assets and whose names were reportedly included in Panama papers leak.
He further said that information on 628 Indians holding bank accounts in HSBC bank in Switzerland was received from the government of France under the Double Taxation Avoidance Convention (DTAC) between India and France.
"As a result of systematic investigation in these cases, undisclosed income of about Rs 8,437 crore was brought to tax till May 2017.
"Besides,
concealment
penalty
of
Rs
1,287
crore
was
levied
in
162
cases
and
199
criminal
prosecution
complaints
were
filed
in
84
cases,"
Jaitley
pointed
out.
He
noted,
however,
that
the
information
received
under
the
tax
treaties
can
be
used
for
tax
purposes
and
its
disclosure
is
governed
by
the
confidentiality
provisions
of
such
treaties.
Replying
to
a
query,
whether
the
government
has
made
any
assessment
of
black
money
stashed
by
Indians
in
foreign
countries,
Jaitley
said
there
is
no
official
estimation
of
that.
However,
he
said,
the
government
had
commissioned
a
study
on
estimation
of
unaccounted
income
and
wealth
inside
and
outside
the
country
to
be
conducted
by
NIPFP,
NIFM
and
NCAER.
A number of strategies have been deployed by the government to combat the stash funds menace, in both overseas and domestic domain, which includes notification of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) on black money, enactment of a new law in this regard last year, amendments in the anti-money laundering Act and operalisation of two compliance windows for people to declare their hidden assets in a one-time fashion.
PTI