New Delhi : The government on Thursday said it would conduct a thorough probe into illegal shell companies set up by alleged Indian tax evaders as fresh skeletons tumbled out of the “Panama Papers” cupboard, linking India’s glamorous mix of sports and entertainment to offshore tax havens.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said every bit of the expose that pointed toward offshore companies set up by more than 500 Indians will be probed and that people with illegal money stashed abroad “won’t get to sleep” at night now. “In last three days we have formed a group. We are analysing each and every account to find out what is legal and what is illegal,” Jaitley said in an interview to ETV News Network. He was referring to the probe ordered by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “Those who are having legal accounts, they need not worry and those having illegal accounts won’t get sleep at night,” the finance minister said. “Those people who have kept it illegally, we will try to detect it fully. And I think that soon every thing will be made clear.”
The warning comes as the media around the world has been carrying stories on people with offshore firms. In the latest disclosure, the Indian Express, which is one of the reporting partners of the ICIJ, reported that 10 members had entered into a pact to form P-Vision Sports to bid for IPL Pune franchise, in which 15 percent was earmarked for the offshore firm, Obdurate Ltd in British Virgin Islands. The bidder consortium included actors Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor and Karisma Kapoor, industrialist Venugupal Dhoot’s firms and Pune-based realtors Chordia family. It had investments by an offshore company.
In the interview, the Finance Minister also sought to clarify what Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan said on the legality of offshore companies opened by Indians.
Congress seeks Big B’s ouster
Mumbai : With actor Amitabh Bachchan’s name figuring in the Panama leaks, the opposition Congress in Maharashtra on Thursday sought his ouster as state’s ambassador for the ‘Save Tiger project’ even as a BJP MLA objected to the ‘vilification campaign’ against the Bollywood megastar.
“Till Bachchan gets a clean chit in the Panama Papers case, he should be removed as tiger brand ambassador as well as from advisory panel on the development of part of the Bandra Kurla Complex as International Finance and Services Centre,” the Leader of Opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil said while raising the issue in Lower House. Incidentally, Bachchan visited Mantralaya today to attend a meeting of the panel.
“It would be improper if Bachchan continues to occupy the two posts especially when his name has allegedly figured in the Panama Papers,” the opposition leader said.
Bachchan, whose name figured in the leaks as allegedly having links with offshore entities in two tax havens, had already denied any connection with those companies, saying his name may have been “misused”.
So, I think he (Rajan) must have said it in that reference — that people who have kept the money by taking permission from the RBI is legitimate and who have kept the money by not taking permission of RBI is not legitimate.” Rajan speaking over the Panama Papers at a Confederation of Indian Industry-organised event in Mumbai on Thursday said that it was important that societies worked towards legitimizing wealth because the phenomenon of rich citizens spiriting money away in tax havens may encourage dissatisfaction among the less well-off. “This is dangerous… the fact that there are occasions where people are found to be hiding their wealth as in the Panama allegations, essentially it contributes to the process of de-legitimisation,” he said.
