Black Money: Will the Govt Get the Big Shots?
By siliconindia   |   Thursday, 03 November 2011, 03:13 IST   |    3 Comments
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The Income Tax department has been sending notices those figured in the controversial list and as part of its probe, has carried out several search operations across the country. The finance ministry has indicated that the identities of the listed people would be made public once the IT department begins prosecution proceedings against them. "As and when the information is received, investigation starts, prosecution takes place and the matter comes to court, then, as per the existing treaty terms, we can reveal the names in cases of prosecution by the Income Tax Department," said Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.
Black Money
According to the Finance Ministry, India has received 9,900 pieces of information so far from several countries about suspicious transactions by Indian citizens. Black money, a pet issue for LK Advani, has been a weapon of attack at the hands of Bharatiya Janata Party against the scam-hit UPA government. The party has demanded the government to reveal identities of the Indians figured in the list and asked the government not to be selective on disclosure of the names. Lashing out at the Congress-leg central government, Advani demanded that it should come out with a White Paper on the actions taken to get back the black money from Swiss banks. BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman said, "Today media reports show how again by sheer fluke, effortlessly from the French government, the Indian government received a compact disc listing 700 bank accounts belonging to Indians in the HSBC Bank, Geneva. It is estimated that this bank alone may have up to Rs 4,000 crore of Indian deposits." She alleged that the congress party is using all the possible means to save the corrupt. It's learned that the government has the government has made over 300 specific requests to different countries for obtaining illegal banking information of Indians abroad. India will also fight for voluntary exchange of tax information by the international community at the sixth G-20 Summit at Cannes. However, only time will tell if the country's political system would take that extra leap to break the barriers to get the big shots who have stashed away unaccounted money in overseas banks.