Names of tax defaulters to be made public

New Delhi: Names of chronic income tax defaulters would be made public as part of government's crackdown on tax evasion and black money.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee disclosed on Sunday that the government was working on a number of strategic initiatives to curb generation of black money and for its detection, including the feasibility and methodology of putting the names of chronic tax defaulters in public domain.

The minister, who unveiled the steps taken by the government to deal with black money and corruption, hit out at BJP and other political parties for attacking the UPA on its track record.

He said the BJP, which was in power for six years at the Centre, and CPI, who’s late Indirajit Gupta, was Home Minister for over one-and-a-half years, had done precious little to deal with corruption and black money.

Mukherjee told PTI that details of assets and payments received by Indian citizens in several countries have "started flowing in" and were being investigated.

Information about wealth stashed away in Swiss banks by Indians was expected before year-end, he said, pointing out that New Delhi has signed a Double Taxation Avoidance Treaty withy Berne.

It was likely to be ratified by the Swiss Parliament by September and information about tax avoidance should be available thereafter.

Information on assets and payments received by Indian citizens was under different stages of processing, he said.

On various estimates of Indian money stashed away abroad, including the figure of $ 468 billion, Mukherjee said, "This is just playing to the gallery."

Replying to a question on the latest official figure given by the Swiss National Bank that the Indian money held in various accounts in Swiss banks is to the tune of $ 2.5 billion, Mukherjee said he cannot comment on it straightaway.

"I have asked our Ambassador to check on the issue." He said the government has commissioned an in-depth study engaging three top national-level institutions for estimation of unaccounted income and wealth held within and outside India.

This study, he said, will bring out the nature of activities that encourage money laundering and its ramifications on national security. The study is expected to be completed within a period of 18 months.

Besides creating an appropriate legislative framework, the government started renegotiations with 75 countries to get more information. Negotiations had been completed with 53 countries or jurisdictions, Mukherjee said.

On tax evasion, the Minister said a committee of top tax officials has been constituted by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) under the chairmanship of Director General of IT (Administration) Anita Kapur with broad terms of reference suggesting modalities for utilisation of the information available with Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and the directorate of Income Tax (Systems) for the recovery of outstanding demand in such cases.

The committee would also examine the possibilities of engaging outside agencies to locate the whereabouts of non-traceable assesses or their assets and also unknown and undisclosed assets owned by the assesses with inadequate assets vis-a-vis the outstanding demand.