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And how much did the farmers get?
WSN Network
 NEW
DELHI: Black Money is a term much bandied about, but this will give you just an idea of what exactly is
involved. The issue of Indian black money in secret bank accounts
abroad was initially being seen as a fantastic BJP noise making
strategy but it seems the sums involved are big, and the Government
of India has indeed conceded the importance of the issue though only
be default.
While the Central Government led by Congress told the Supreme
Court that there was indeed the possibility of Indians featuring
among those who are found to have parked huge amounts of illicit
money with the LGT Bank in the tax haven of Lichenstein, what
shocked people was the kind of amounts involved.
The Government of India, which was making a huge deal out of
Rs 71,000 crore all time record loan waiver for farmers, has now
admitted that the amount asked for from just one business house as a
result of re-assessment of wealth, was Rs 71,848.59 which the Income
Tax authorities considered unpaid taxes.
The Centre now says that serious efforts were already
underway to retrieve the monies. The hint that it may have located
Indian nationals among those having secret deposits in the LGT Bank
came in the much-awaited affidavit it filed in response to a PIL
asking for measures to bring back money suspected to have been
spirited away to be deposited in secret accounts.
Wary of disclosing much at the initial stage of
investigation, the UPA government said it has already activated
Income Tax and Wealth Tax sleuths to scrutinise the data and take
appropriate action.
But a clue that a number of Indians figure in the list of LGT
Bank account holders, given to India by the German authorities on
March 18, came from the assertion of the Department of Revenue that
"the said authorities have initiated the process of reopening the
assessments under the Income Tax Act, 1961, and Wealth Tax Act,
1957."
The issue of money parked abroad has taken on a serious
dimension because of the recession-inspired global consensus
favouring an end to the "secret banking".
The issue has acquired partisan overtones during the campaign
for the Lok Sabha poll after BJP embraced it with full vigour,
attracting sharp attack from the Congress which alleges that the
saffron outfit has politicised the issue by exaggerating the scale.
In its affidavit, the Centre made specific references to huge
deposits in the Swiss bank by Pune-based Hasan Ali Khan and his
associate, Kashinath Tapuria.
The coordinated efforts of the I-T department and the
Enforcement Directorate "led to detection of account with the UBS
Bank in the name of Rheema Khan, wife of Hasan Ali Khan..", the
Centre's affidavit settled by additional solicitor general Gopal
Subramaniam said.
While ED has issued a show cause notice to Hasan Ali Khan for
contravention of provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act,
1999, for "unauthorisedly dealing of $8 billion", the I-T
department, on the basis of seized documents and other materials
gathered during investigations, "have raised a total demand of Rs
71,848.59 crore against Ali Khan, his wife Rheema and other
associates", the Centre said.
"The investigations carried out till date in respect of
Kashinath Tapuria and his wife reveal existence of certain overseas
bank accounts. The government is in the process of obtaining details
of the said accounts and ED has seized their passports," the Centre
said.
The response came far too late than the self-imposed 48-hour
deadline that the Centre had given itself in the Supreme Court on
April 22 to make the Bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan
withhold issuance of notice on a PIL filed by renowned lawyer Ram
Jethmalani and others, who had accused the UPA government of being
lethargic in retrieving a possible Rs 70 lakh crore worth of black
money stashed in foreign banks.
The UPA government felt that the figure of Rs 70 lakh crore
as black money bordered on fantasy and said: "There are no authentic
figures about the amount of monies lying in those bank accounts." It
said: "The present petition presumably pertains to monies lying in
foreign accounts which are exclusive of lawful and legitimate
deposits which can be made by both Indian residents and NRIs."
After trashing the charge of inaction to retrieve the black
money, the Centresaid it saw a close link between the PIL, its
timing and the opposition BJP, whose prime ministerial candidate L K
Advani had made an identical accusation.
It said the entire PIL was based solely on an article written
by one Raja Vaidyananthan in a Magazine, `Eternal India'. The
Congress-led UPA government said Vaidyananthan is a member of BJP's
Task Force on strategies to bring back `stashed funds'.
The Centre also tried to draw an indirect link between
Jethmalani and BJP through his son Mahesh Jethmalani, who is
contesting on the BJP ticket from Mumbai. "The motivation of the
public interest pursued by the petitioners is not very clear. The
said Task Force of four members also included Gurumurthy and Mahesh
Jethmalani, who is presently contesting the Parliament election on
behalf of the BJP," it said.
6
May 2009
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