Panama Papers probe is in full swing, reveals Rs 792 Cr black money

NewsBharati    07-Nov-2017
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New Delhi, November 7: The Multi-Agency Group (MAG) which was constituted in April last year to investigate the Panama Papers, has found around 792 crore rupees of undisclosed credits have been detected while criminal prosecution complaints have been filed in five cases.

The Finance Ministry said “till now MAG has submitted seven reports so far and investigation is in full swing.” The Panama Papers contained brief particulars of about 426 Indians or persons of Indian origin.

In a statement, the CBDT said, the Income Tax Department conducted enquiries in all 426 cases, inter alia, through making 395 references to 28 foreign jurisdictions. Based on analysis of the information obtained and investigation conducted, the outcome so far indicates 147 actionable cases and 279 non-actionable cases (non-residents/no irregularities etc).

Pursuant to revelations made by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), a Washington based organization in April 2016 about certain Indians having linkages with entities in offshore no tax/low tax jurisdictions, the Government constituted MAG, inter alia, to facilitate co-ordinated and speedy investigation.

The MAG consisted of officers of Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), Enforcement Directorate (ED), Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and Reserve Bank of India. So far, the MAG has submitted 7 reports to the Government.

Panama Papers scandal is an unprecedented leak of 11.5 million files from the database of the world’s fourth biggest offshore law firm, Mossack Fonseca. The documents show the myriad ways in which the rich can exploit secretive offshore tax regimes. Twelve national leaders are among 143 politicians, their families and close associates from around the world known to have been using offshore tax havens.