Agencies seek order to study tax exposé by ICIJ

NEW DELHI: Investigative agencies are awaiting the government’s directions on whether to step in after an exposé on Thursday by an international group of investigative journalists said 612 Indians are among those with investments in tax havens such as the British Virgin Islands.

Government officials said the finance ministry has to take the call on how to procure documents in the possession of the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists ( ICIJ), which reveal Indian politicians and some prominent businessmen and industrialists as having registered off-shore companies in tax havens.

The Reserve Bank of India ( RBI) could also intervene to check if there had been a violation of banking and forex laws, one government source said. The Enforcement Directorate, which has the mandate to probe money laundering offences as indicated in the expose, and the Income Tax department, which had been looking at the dubious investments in the off-shore havens, have also taken note of the expose, a source said. However, no details of the 612 Indians who have allegedly made such investments are available yet on the official website of ICIJ.

A media report here said these 612 Indians have created entities and trusts in British Virgin Islands, the Cook Islands and Samoa among other offshore hideaways.

The exposé points to 1.2 lakh offshore entities in 170 countries and has created a huge impact worldwide by naming prominent political leaders and international businessmen from the UK, the US, Spain, Indonesia, Russia and Pakistan.