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Panama Papers Leak: India sets up multi-agency probe team
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SME Times News Bureau | 05 Apr, 2016
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday ordered a multi-agency probe team
on the global expose by International Consortium of Investigative
Journalists (ICIJ), dubbed the "Panama Papers", which found over 500
Indians also had alleged offshore links.
"A multi-agency group is
being formed to monitor the black money trail," Finance Minister Arun
Jaitley said here after the expose was published in The Indian Express.
"Details of the assets worth Rs.6,500 crore has already been found," he
added.
As per a statement issued by his ministry, the probe team
will comprise officers from the Central Board of Direct Taxes' Financial
Intelligence Unit, its Tax Research Unit as also officials from the
Reserve Bank of India.
"The group will monitor the flow of
information in each one of the case. The government will take all the
necessary actions as required to get maximum information from all
sources including from foreign governments to help in the investigation
process," the statement added.
The journalists' consortium had
said late on Sunday that its members and more than 100 other news
organisations around the globe have found offshore links of some of the
planet's most prominent people. The list included over 500 Indians.
The
details of the Indians with such offshore funds were published in The
Indian Express. But whether or not such funds exist, and also if they
were illegal is what the probe team ordered by Modi is expected to look
into.
"In terms of size, the Panama Papers is likely the biggest
leak of inside information in history - more than 11.5 million documents
- and it is equally likely to be one of the most explosive in the
nature of its revelations," the consortium said of its investigation
published.
In the context of the commitment of the central
government to bring out undisclosed money both from abroad and from
within the country, information brought out by any investigative
journalism was welcome, the finance ministry said.
The ministry
said in the past too, based on the investigations by ICIJ in 2013 --
that showed the links of 700 Indians with business connection with
off-shore entities -- the agencies of the government were able to
identify 434 persons as Indian residents.
It also said 184 persons admitted their relationship with such off-shore entities/transactions.
"Although,
in the previous report of ICIJ, information relating to financial
transactions/bank accounts was not available, the government authorities
have detected credit in the undisclosed foreign accounts of such Indian
persons in excess of Rs.2,000 crores."
As a consequence, 52 prosecution complaints have been filed against the alleged offenders so far.
"The
government is committed to detecting and preventing the generation of
black money. In this context the expose of Panama Papers will further
help the government in meeting the objective," the finance ministry
added.
The government expressed concern that tax havens were making countries like India suffer tax losses.
"The
recent initiative of 'Base Erosion' and 'Profit Shifting' (BEPS) will
help India and other countries in checking the practice of tax-avoidance
through such tax havens. India is also fully committed to the BEPS
initiative."
In India, The Indian Express ran several pages of
the investigation reports alleging, among other names, Bollywood
superstarts Amitabh Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai, being directors in
companies in Panama.
The two did not immediately respond despite
efforts to contact them. Aishwarya Rai's media adviser told the
newspaper that the information was false. The spokesperson for Aishwarya
Rai said "no" when IANS asked her if she intended to issue a statement.
Among
those named in the report were Sameer Gehlaut of India Bulls and K.P.
Singh of DLF. Vinod Adani, elder brother of industrialist Gautam Adani,
politician Shishir Bajoria from West Bengal and Anurag Kejriwal of
Loksatta Party were also alleged to have set up companies in tax havens.
Bajoria told the paper that that "erroneous beneficial owner information" was given by mistake.
The
Express said it had carried out the investigations spread over eight
months with several global newspapers. Many of the other persons named
in the Express reports responded, some denying while others maintaining
that they had worked within the laws of the country.
Among the
global leaders named were 12 current and former world leaders, including
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's family members. It also sought
to reveal how associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin secretly
shuffled as much as $2 billion through banks and shadow firms.
In
Russia, the state-run media organisations were silent on the subject.
In Pakistan, however, Sharif's son Hussain told Geo News that his family
had not done anything wrong.
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Very Impressive
Admin. | Wed Apr 6 06:43:53 2016
Very Impressive story created by SME, you shall gain a huge experience and learning skills. Further its up to yours.
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