The multi-agency group, which includes officials of the Central Board of Direct Taxes, the RBI and the Financial Intelligence Unit, was set up on Monday on the advice of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. They’ll constantly monitor these [ balances that are ] and whichever accounts are observed to not become legitimate, stringent action depending on present regulations will soon be taken he told reporters.
Advertisement
But Panama has said it was only prepared to exchange information on the basis of bilateral agreements, and only in response to specific requests for information, to ensure the protection of confidentiality. It allows a never-before-seen view inside the offshore world – providing a day-to-day, decade-by-decade look at how dark money flows through the global financial system, breeding crime and stripping national treasuries of tax revenues.
The Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up by the Supreme Court to track black money has said that it will probe the alleged list of Indians named in a report alleging that they stashed money in offshore entities including tax haven Panama.
Bank of Maharashtra CMD Sushil Muhnot said: “There is possibility of RBI reducing rate by 0.25 per cent as inflation has eased”.
According to a report appearing in The Indian Express, the Panama papers feature names such as film stars Amitabh Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, to corporates including DLF owner K.P. Singh and nine members of his family, and the promoters of Apollo Tyres and IndiaBulls to Gautam Adani’s elder brother Vinod Adani. It is important to note that there are legitimate reasons to have accounts outside. “Each and every year, the wealthiest people in this country and the largest corporations evade about $100 billion in taxes through abusive and illegal offshore tax havens in Panama and in other countries”. The reaction in the US has been relatively muted.
Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov says “it’s obvious that the main target of such attacks is our president”, and claimed that the publication was aimed at influencing Russia’s stability and parliamentary elections scheduled for September. Mossack Fonseca is not the only firm that provides such services.
The Democratic presidential candidate said a 2011 speech he delivered on the Senate floor in opposition to the Panama Free Trade Agreement had accurately laid out the way the country could be used as a tax shelter. “We are in the investigation team on “Panama Papers”.
Following a leak from a Panamanian law firm, authorities in other countries said they would investigate the individuals mentioned for possible tax evasion.
“Other agencies in the panel will act as and when the data is shared on the SIT platform”, they said.
Advertisement
The US is also reviewing the leaked Panama papers, which lifted the lid on the murky financial dealings of a slew of politicians and celebrities across the world. Records of worldwide law firm Mossack Fonseca and subsequent inquiries show that the four companies, in which Bachchan was appointed director, were registered in tax havens – one in the British Virgin Islands and three in the Bahamas in November 1993.
