Black money accounts: Opposition may target government in winter session

NEW DELHI: The list of bank accounts of Indians allegedly holding illegal wealth in HSBC, received from France through diplomatic channels a few months ago, could come in handy for the Opposition to target the government in the coming winter session of Parliament.

The Opposition, particularly the BJP, can be expected to pile up pressure on the government to make this list of HSBC account holders public. Countries like the UK, Spain and Italy have already begun investigations in their respective countries on the basis of the information accessed from France. A recent study by Global Financial Integrity had estimated India's black money stashed abroad at $462 billion.

BJP leaders, who said the issue will be on top of the party's priority chart in Parliament, said the reluctance to make the list public showed that the government was "not serious" about addressing the issue. They said the government's claim that it would recover undeclared money was "hollow". But sources said ED is in the process of scrutinising the tax statements of those who figure in the list of HSBC account holders.

The BJP has already put the black money on the centre of its campaign agenda and LK Advani, who is undertaking a rath yatra, has demanded a white paper on the subject. "I have been told that the government has the names of some Indians having black money in foreign banks, it is time the government made their names public. If the government hesitates in making their names public, it will send the message that it wants to protect them," Advani had said.

The government is also under pressure from the SC after it expressed displeasure over the refusal to disclose the names of Indian entities who had stashed black money in overseas tax havens. The apex court had appointed a special investigation team to monitor the efforts to bring back black money. On its part, the government had set up a special committee under the chairmanship of the CBDT chief to examine ways to strengthen the country's laws to curb the generation of black money and its illegal transfer.