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250 Foreign Bank Account Holders Identified: Jaitley in RS
11/26/2014 11:00:07 PM
Agencies

NEW DELHI, Nov 26: Facing all round attack on its promise of quickly bringing back blackmoney stashed abroad, Government today said it will proactively chase the offenders and promised not to rest till the last account is identified.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley disclosed in Rajya Sabha that 250 account holders out of a list of 627 names provided by HSBC, Geneva, have admitted to having accounts but the almost the entire opposition walked out saying they were "disappointed" with his reply to the debate on the issue.
Responding to the repeated demand for disclosure of the names of blackmoney holders, the minister said premature disclosure would only help the offenders.
"The question is not whether to disclose but when and how. We have to disclose the names in a very prudent and thoughtful manner," he said defending the government stand in view of the treaty obligations that revealing of names will result in non-cooperation by foreign governments.
"If we indulge in populist, adventurist stance, this will only help the account holders," he said adding the government will not follow a suicidal course. He, however, deftly sidestepped the Opposition criticism made during the day-long debate in both Houses of Parliament and its demand for an apology from Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his "failure" to fulfil his election promise of repatriating the blackmoney from abroad in 100 days and distributing Rs 15 lakh to each citizen.
Opposition members attacked Modi and other BJP leaders of "selling lies" during election campaign and questioned the figure of Rs 85 lakh crore given by the Prime Minister as total illicit money lying abroad.
"We are going on the right track even if it is going to take time. The Income Tax law may not be enough. We will be extremely proactive in taking action. We will follow fool proof procedure to take these people to task," Jaitley said.
"We are committed and sincere in efforts to identify blackmoney holders. It will go on till the last account is identified," he said.
Replying to the repeated taunts of the Opposition about the 100 day deadline by Modi during the election campaign, he said, "you may have no satisfaction about what we have done in 100 days. But we have done more than any other government has done. We have done a lot." He hit back at opposition saying, "all I have said is we can have endless debate on the reasons for your defeat in the elections or the best way to punish the offender."
"Populism and sarcastic comments are not response and solution to the issue," he told the Opposition members.
Leaders of the main Opposition Congress in both the Houses Mallikarjun Kharge and Anand Sharma and other Opposition leaders accused Modi of having played with the people's emotions by speaking untruths and defaming the previous UPA government while giving out the same explanations about the difficulties in the task like the previous dispensation.
They demanded an apology for the government's "failure".
Bringing back black money stashed abroad is a procedure which will take time, Jaitley said spelling out the steps taken by the government.
He referred to the HSBC list of 627 account holders received by the government and said identity of 427 of them has been established. 250 of them have admitted to having accounts, making the government's task easier, he added.
The confidentiality clause prevents disclosure of names of foreign account holders unless prosecution is launched against them in a court of law, he noted.

Jaitley said more prosecutions are going to be filed in the coming weeks with regard to people figuring in the HSBC list, who are suspected to have illicit accounts there.

"We are on a learning curve... The government is going to be on the right track even if it takes extra time," the Finance Minister said and suggested that the government was even willing to change laws if required to bring back black money.

Talking about the 427 accounts identified, he said the government is in the process of their assessment and notices are being sent to them.

Responding to questions over what had been done to bring back black money, he said in the very first meeting of the Modi Cabinet in May, a decision was taken to set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT), a proposal regarding which had been pending since July 2011.

The government, he added, has handed over all the documents relating to black money to the SIT which will be submitting its second report to the Supreme Court by the end of this month.

"We have to disclose the names in a very prudent and thoughtful manner," he said adding it could only be a "one-day thrill".

India has 92 Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements (DTAAs) with various jurisdictions and except one with Romania, all have confidentiality clauses, Jaitley said.

He said India is in the forefront of global efforts to fight the menace of black money for automatic exchange of tax information.

The initiatives have been taken at various fora like G20, OECD and FATCA (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act) being proposed by the US.

He said the US is signing agreements with various countries for automatic exchange of information and if India does not do so, it will not be able to get information from the US as well as others who sign such agreements.

He said India has a choice of joining the mainstream or walk lonely. "We are going to have automatic exchange of information," he added.

Jaitley said the government has held discussions with Switzerland for sharing of information on Indians having illegal accounts in Swiss banks.
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