Black Money list: Special team to probe 627 Indians with foreign bank accounts

New DelhiThe sealed envelope with the names of 627 Indians holding bank accounts overseas against whom a probe is on to ascertain conformity with domestic tax laws is to be passed on to a special team set up under the Supreme Courts directionThis directive from the apex court came after Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi submitted the envelope along with two others to a bench of Chief Justice HL Dattu and Justices Ranjana Prakash Desai and Madan B Lokur Wednesday as sought by them a day earlierThe Special Investigation Team SIT headed by Justice MB Shah with Justice Arijit Pasayat as vice chair was called for by the Supreme Court by way of an order July 4 2011 and officially notified by the government endMay this yearThe other two envelopes pertain to information furnished by the French government and the action taken by the Government of India thus far in trying to get back the illegal funds parked by Indians in overseas banks and estimated at between 426 billion and 14 trillionDirecting further hearing on the matter Dec 3 the apex court said the special team by that time would submit its status report on the steps taken by it in pursuance to this list of 627 account holdersRohatgi told the apex court that half of these account holders were Indian residents and the other half nonresident Indians and pertained to a period up to 2006 He said action was initiated with some of having paid the taxes and others under investigationThe top law officer requested on behalf of the government that care be taken such that nothing impedes the Indian authorities and probe agencies in getting information from these countries and others on foreign accounts in futureImportantly he said the Income Tax Act had been amended to extend the limitation period for recovering taxes from these account holders till March 31 2015 Earlier the limitation period was six years and would have expired in 2012Rohatgi once again told the apex court that the government had no intention to hold back any information or names it had in its possession on this matter and was open to inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation Income Tax authorities or any other agencyldquoOur only one request is According to terms of the treaties entered by the government with other countries there is a confidentiality clause Nothing should be done that may impede our ability to get information from these countries and othersrdquo he saidThe court agreed ldquoWe have no intention of causing any embarrassment to the government We will send all these names to the SIT and ask them to proceed in accordance with lawAll the 627 accounts in the list are at HSBC Bank in Geneva and the details were secured from the French government The data was actually stolen by a bank employee as a result of which the Swiss authorities declined help in any manner the court was toldAt the same time HSBC Bank had said that if the Indian authorities get a noobjection certificate from the account holders it could then share the relevant details Some 5060 of the account holders had given their consentThe entire matter came up after senior counsel Ram Jethmalani and others filed a public interest suit wanting the government to be restrained from signing double tax avoidance pacts with other nations and block information flow on illgotten money parked abroadThe appointment of the special probe team was one of the outcomes