Black money: Preneet Kaur, ex-UPA minister, figures among 627 names submitted to SC
NEW DELHI: Former minister of state for external affairs in the UPA regime, Preneet Kaur, figures in the list of 627 names of Indians holding accounts in foreign banks, which was submitted by the Centre to the Supreme Court.
Kaur, wife of former Punjab CM and Congress’s deputy leader in Lok Sabha Amarinder Singh, recently denied having a Swiss account. “I can confirm receiving such (income tax) notice in 2011, and having replied to it, wherein I have strongly denied any such allegations. In keeping with my reply to the I-T department, I would like to state that I never have had, and do not have any bank account(s) overseas in my name with any foreign bank.”
However, sources said while she may not have an account now in HSBC’s parent bank in Switzerland but the HSBC list showed she had one around 10 years back. “There is hardly any money in the account. Details of financial transactions are sketchy as reflected in the information sheet recording final balance prior to 2006,” sources told TOI.
It is Dabur’s Pradip Burman who had the largest deposit, around Rs 50 crore, in an HSBC account which showed active transactions.
Sources said while Goan mining firm Timblo Private Ltd’s director Radha Satish Timblo was right in saying that she never had an account in HSBC bank in Switzerland, information with the authorities showed that she has a foreign bank account in another country.
Details of Kaur’s account can escalate Congress’s fight with BJP over black money. The run-up to Lok Sabha polls saw BJP attacking the UPA government for not doing enough to disclose the identity of those who had allegedly stashed illicit money in foreign accounts. Congress has now responded by latching on to Supreme Court’s harsh comments against the government for the handling of the matter of illegal bank deposits abroad to allege that the Modi government deceived people during the campaign.
It accused finance minister Arun Jaitley of “blackmail” when he said that the disclosure of names of foreign account holders could embarrass the Congress.
The information on Kaur’s account can strengthen BJP’s hand in the tussle. Significantly, Jaitley did not rule out the possibility of a former UPA minister figuring in the list. “I am neither confirming nor denying. I am only smiling,” the finance minister had said in response to a question from Times Now.
Sources also said that proceeding against all those having accounts in HSBC may not be possible. Of the 627, only 350-odd are resident Indians who could be proceeded against by the I-T department. The rest are non-resident Indians (NRIs) who are outside the jurisdiction of Indian tax laws.
Sources acknowledge that it is sheer providence that the I-T department had got around 100-odd HSBC account holders to accept that they maintained accounts in the Swiss bank and used the coercive provisions of tax laws to make them pay up penalties.
With Swiss authorities refusing to share any information about these 350-odd accounts held by resident Indians on the ground that they dated to a period between 1999 and 2006, there was little the department could have done had they refused to comply with the I-T department notices.
Switzerland has taken shelter under the provisions of the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement which came into force from 2011 and told the Indian authorities that they would not entertain any query or request for information on account transactions prior to 2011.
The recent commitment that “Swiss competent authority will provide the Indian side with the requested information in a time bound manner or else indicate the reasons why the cases cannot be answered within the agreed time frame” also involves sharing information in cases of alleged tax evasion committed after 2011.
While submitting the list of 627 names, the Centre had told the Supreme Court that it had submitted the list and accompanying information to the court-appointed SIT headed by two former judges of the SC, Justices M B Shah and Arijit Pasayat, on June 27.
The court has sought a status report from the SIT by November 30 and posted hearing on the PIL on black money filed by noted criminal lawyer Ram Jethmalani on December 3.
