The Income Tax (I-T) department has again started the process of sending notices to 149 Indians—out of the 500 names that had appeared in the Panama Papers’ expose last year—as these individuals are yet to file their replies despite getting repeated I-T notices, I-T sources have said.
According to a senior I-T official, the tax department had already sent notices to 386 individuals named in the Panama Papers, but out of these, only 180 individuals admitted to owning an offshore entity in tax havens. The I-T department’s investigation had also revealed that 57 individuals did not even follow the basic Reserve Bank of India (RBI) guidelines in place for carrying out any such investment abroad, while 149 individuals did not even bother to file reply to the I-T notices.
Surabhi Ahluwalia, spokesperson of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), told The Sunday Guardian: “The investigations against all 386 individuals are on and so far, the I-T department has not given clean chit to any individual named in the Panama Papers. In many cases of offshore entities, the investigation is already on the fast track.”
The fresh notices are being sent at a time when, almost a year-and-a-half later, the ICIJ has come up with another similar global investigative report, the Paradise Papers, which has exposed the offshore activities of over 700 Indians, besides others from across the globe. The names in the Paradise Papers include Amitabh Bachchan, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Rajya Sabha MP R.K. Sinha, corporate lobbyist Niira Radia, Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt’s wife, and Vijay Mallya, among others.
“The I-T department is closely monitoring the progress in the ongoing investigation (into the Panama Papers’ expose) and it has also started scrutinising the names of individuals appearing in the Paradise Papers’ expose. The I-T department has directed its investigation units spread across the country, to take note of the recent Paradise Papers expose and incorporate the facts in their investigation,” Ahluwalia said. “The I-T department is already probing these exposes separately, but on the direction of the Ministry of Finance, a multi-agency investigative group, headed by the chairman of the CBDT, has also been formed to carry on a detailed probe into the exposes,” Ahluwalia added.
A senior CBDT official told The Sunday Guardian: “While the income tax department will investigate the individuals named in Paradise Papers for tax evasion, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) will examine the disclosure of funds of their firms. The role of the Enforcement Directorate in the probe will be to investigate the part involving violations under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) in the exposes, whereas the Financial Investigation Unit will investigate the channel of money transfers used by these individuals in offshore investments.”
“The I-T department is also preparing to send letters of request to countries like Malaysia, Switzerland, the UK and British Virgin Islands, seeking more details of some of the individuals. In the past, the department has sent several letters and had received good response from these countries,” the same CBDT official cited above said.