Via: India Today Clueless SIT fails to recover black money stashed abroad Abhishek Bhalla New Delhi, Sunday, July 20, 2014 Black money probe seems to be heading towards the black hole. The Special Investigation Team set up for this purpose doesnt seem to have the wherewithal to track the strong room where several Indians have stashed their thousands of crores of unaccounted money in banks abroad. The SIT, comprising top-notch investigators, headed by Justice (retired) M.B. Shah, has made no headway whatsoever to bring back the black money. With that, SITs much-hyped activities face the ignominy of becoming nothing but a shambolic exercise. As the black money trail goes stone cold, it exposes once again Indias lack of expertise to tackle such white collar crimes. True its early days for the high-profile SIT headed by Justice Shah. But, top government sources said the panel has not made any breakthrough. The panel has met twice, but the sources said there is still no roadmap for tracing and bringing back the black money. Officials privy to the meetings held by the SIT said no out of the box idea emerged in the deliberations to get the black money back to India. Officials said no action plan was in place to get the desired results. Members of the panel are not very optimistic about ensuring that this money is traced and brought back. Its easy to get people back but almost impossible to get money back. We dont even know the amount of money that is stashed abroad, said a senior government official who is part of the SIT. In two months, you cannot expect us to get all the money back that has been stashed away in banks outside India over the years. It will take time, said another member of the panel. No clue A top sleuth who is part of the panel said, Door door tak kuch nahin dikh reha hai (Even by stretching out necks, we could not find any clue). Sources said the introduction of stronger laws and punitive measures are some of the ideas that were discussed at the meetings that have taken place. The matter needs to be taken up at the diplomatic level. We need to put pressure on some countries to get the money back, said a member of the panel. Heads of Department of Revenue (under the Ministry of Finance), Reserve Bank of India, Intelligence Bureau, Enforcement Directorate, Central Bureau of Investigation, Income Tax department, Narcotics Control Bureau, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Financial Intelligence Unit, Research and Analysis Wing and the Central Board of Direct Taxes are part of the panel. Besides justice Shah, another retired Supreme Court judge, Arijit Pasayat, is on the panel. On Friday, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said in Parliament that Switzerland has raised certain legal issues in response to Indias demand for providing a list of illegal account holders in that countrys banks. Jaitley said since the treaty between India and Switzerland is prospective in nature and meant for the future, Swiss authorities were not sharing lists of account holders. In May this year, the Supreme Court had passed strict direction to expedite the probe. We now direct the Union of India to issue appropriate notification, as directed by this court in its earlier order, as expeditiously as possible, and not later than three weeks. We also request the chairperson and vice-chairperson of the SIT to initiate actions as expeditiously as possible, the court had said. Special panel The National Democratic Alliance government set up the SIT on its very first day in office, in line with the directions of the Supreme Court. The earlier United Progressive Alliance government sat on the decision and did not form the panel. A study commissioned by the UPA government in March 2011 on black money within the country and abroad was to be completed in 18 months, but it is yet to be completed. Senior Supreme Court lawyer Ram Jethmalani, who approached the Supreme Court for action on the issue of black money stashed abroad, is now suspicious. It was his action that led the apex court to give directions for the panel to be set up. The veteran lawyer recently alleged that people within the NDA government did not want his campaign against black money to succeed. There are certain people in the government who are scuttling my fight to bring back black money. I dont want to say anything further or take names. But very soon I will write about it, he said. Sources said the proceedings of the SIT are going to be a time-consuming affair and with the way things have begun, it appeared as if the efforts to get back the black money will be trapped in Indias bureaucratic maze. The high-level panel, to begin with, has asked for details of tax evasion and financial fraud being investigated by various agencies. The 11 departments that are part of the panel have been asked to furnish details of cases and their status. Its going to be a long bureaucratic exercise with little results, said a member of the SIT. The panel will also look into secrecy clauses with certain countries, but sources said there is little that can be done since this is an issue that needs to be pushed at the diplomatic level.
Posted on: Sun, 20 Jul 2014 07:47:17 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015