Paradise Papers: First set of Income Tax summons go out

The Indian Express, December 13, 2017

In less than a month after publication of the Paradise Papers (November 5, 2017), investigation units of the Income Tax Department have begun issuing summons and questionnaires to persons named in the global media offshore leak.

Top officials of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) told The Indian Express that summons have been issued under Section 131 of the Income Tax Act which ensures the appearance of persons called to give evidence.
Officials said the first set of summons with specific questions for each were sent in end-November.
The Paradise Papers are a cache of 13.4 million documents published 18 months after Panama Papers. Both sets of data were obtained by German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung and were investigated by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) working in partnership with 96 news organisations, including The Indian Express.
The Paradise Papers is the fourth collaborative investigation into offshore and banking assets done by The Indian Express with the ICIJ.
In this case, India ranks 19th in terms of number of names appearing in the data in which 180 countries are represented. There are 714 Indians named in the data according to figures released by the ICIJ.
Just like in the case of Panama Papers, the Government immediately announced the setting up of a Multi Agency Group (MAG) to exclusively probe the Paradise Papers. The MAG has membership from the Reserve Bank of India, the Financial Intelligence Unit, besides the CBDT and the Enforcement Directorate and has already held its first round of meetings. At the first meeting, instructions were issued for a list of first batch of Indians named to be prepared who could be issued summons and called for submitting evidence.
CBDT officials said, as a result, the first batch of Section 131 summons have been issued to 23 “groups” named in the Paradise Papers who also figure in the structured data made public by the ICIJ last month.
Officials explained that in each “group” there could be several Indians who were named as Directors/Beneficial Owners of a single off-shore entity. An early scrutiny of tax returns and business background has already been done for these 23 “groups” with those named expected to submit documentation and tax declarations, if any, for the off-shore entities they set up.
Subsequently, if a case is made out of suspected tax avoidance, the CBDT will approach the foreign jurisdictions for details of assets and money held by these off-shore entities.
Shortly, officials said, another batch of summons will be sent in connection with the Paradise Papers.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

India Joins Russia in Voting Against West-Backed Move to Expand Powers of OPCW

The Wire: June 28, 2018 New Delhi: India voted against a UK-backed move that will allow the global chemical weapons watchdog to apportion blame for illegal attacks, criticising the decision to grant “unchecked powers” to the head of the group which could be used for “partisan” purposes. On Wednesday, more than two-thirds of the member states of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) voted to authorise the international body to identify the perpetrators and sponsors of a chemical weapons attack. It also specifically called on the OPCW’s technical secretariat to begin work on identifying the perpetrators behind the use of chemical weapons in Syria. The draft decision, sponsored by 30 countries, was adopted at the fourth special session of the conference of the states parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention at the Hague, with 82 in favour and 24 negative votes. While Europe, the United States and their allies voted ‘yes’, there was strong oppo...
Read more

ED tracks Swiss Bank A/Cs of Agusta scamster

The Poineer February 10,2019 Rakesh K Singh The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has tracked a dozen Swiss bank accounts in the name of Rajiv Saxena, who is key accused in the Rs 3,600 crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam. The ED has also found out accounts held by  his family members and associates where the kickbacks in the now scrapped deal were allegedly parked. Two bank accounts are in the name of Rajiv Saxena’s  associates Pankaj Jain and Sumita Jain who are also the authorised signatories. The  third is in the name of another associate Ajit Singh Bubber, but Rajiv and his family members are authorised signatories. The remaining nine accounts are largely owned and operated by Rajiv, his family members and associates. Rajiv Saxena was deported by the UAE authorities on January 30 and the ED formally arrested him the next day and a court later granted his remand to the agency. He is currently undergoing custodial interrogation by the ED. The agency had in 2017...
Read more

Pakistan under biggest pressure from anti-terror watchdog FATF, says Ajit Doval at NIA meet

India Today October 14, 2019 Jitendra Bahadur Singh, Kamaljit Kaur Sandhu  National Security Adviser Ajit Doval on Monday slammed Pakistan for providing a safe breeding ground for terrorists and using terrorism as an instrument of state policy. "If a criminal has the support of a state, it becomes a great challenge. Some of the states have mastered this. In our case, Pakistan has made it as an instrument of its state policy," NSA Doval said at an event of the National Investigation Agency on Monday. 'War no more an option' The National Security Adviser added that Pakistan was under immense pressure at the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) meeting, currently underway in Paris, to rein in terror groups operating from its soil, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval said on Monday. "One of the biggest pressures that has come on Pakistan today is because of the proceedings of Financial Action Task Force (FATF), it has created so much pressure on them...
Read more