Czech Republic, Finland give black money information

NEW DELHI: At a time when public anger is simmering on the issue of black money, the government has received two CDs from Czech Republic and Finland containing names of Indians who have conducted high-value transactions in banks in these countries.

Many of the transacations are of a suspicious nature, said sources, adding that income tax authorities are trying the establish the actual benificiaries of the transactions.

The latest CDs on black money, they said, have taken the number of such CDs received by the government in the last two years to 26.

So far, the government has received information on Indians’ banking transactions from nine countries — Germany, France, US, Japan, South Korea, Denmark, Czech Republic and Finland.

The continuous flow of CDs containing details of huge bank deposits of Indians abroad reinforces the belief that Indian authorities have failed to curb generation of black money and its flight out of the country. However, all the information received from abroad may not amount to illicit transactions . Some of it may be part of legitimate deals Indians have made abroad.

One of the first such cases in which Indian authorities started investigating Indians for black money was based on a CD received from Germany in 2008 on deposits in the Liechtenstein (LGT) bank. In the LGT case, information about 26 Indian account holders was passed on by the German tax authorities. After investigation, tax officials made a penalty case of Rs 40-45 crore, almost equivalent to the amount that had been spirited away by Indians.

The other high-profile case based on the CDs was the one received from France in 2011. The government had obtained details of 700 accounts of Indians in HSBC Bank in Geneva from the French government. Investigation across Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata among other cities revealed black money belonged to top industrialist, some politicians and other entities, some merely working as fronts for people yet to be identified.