Black money: Income assessment of HSBC account holders to be completed soon, says Arun Jaitley

NEW DELHI: Finance minister Arun Jaitley has said income assessment of a large number of people named in a HSBC list of Indian account holders in its Swiss subsidiary will be completed by March 31 and tax authorities have so far detected evaded income of Rs 3,250 crore.

“Proceedings have been initiated against the defaulters,” the finance minister told the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday in reply to a question. “Let me assure the members that nobody which is part of the HSBC list against whom evidence is forthcoming is going to be spared,” he said.

On questions about the basis for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's contention that each citizen could get Rs 15 lakh if entire black money stashed abroad was unearthed, Jaitley said, “...it is an illustrative statement, which indicates that if any of those versions (of black money stashed abroad) are accepted, then pro-rata that is the benefit which accrues to citizen of India.”

Modi had made this statement during his campaign for last year's Lok Sabha elections. “It is a statement which has been made by several people in that context and it must be taken entirely in that context,” Jaitley said.

The finance minister said that all efforts are being made to bring to books those who have been named in the HSBC list of black money holders and there are evidence against them. There were 628 names in the HSBC list and a large number of those have been identified, he said, adding that assessment would be completed by March 31.

“In more than two hundred of those cases assessments have been completed, demands have been placed on them and penalties have been imposed on them. In some cases, the recoveries have been made,” the FM informed the house.