Special Investigation Team (SIT) on black money on Tuesday asked the government to enforce deterrent penal action against persons involved in creation of shell companies.
Special Investigation Team (SIT) on black money on Tuesday asked the government to enforce deterrent penal action against persons involved in creation of shell companies.
This even as SIT rejected an HSBC whistle blower Herve Falciani claim that Indian authorities are not using a “lot of information” on illicit funds, saying he has created a “hue and cry” and not replied to its earlier requests. SIT in a report on shell companies said that there are 2,627 persons holding directorship in more than 20 companies in violation of section 165 of the Companies Act, 2013. The total number of companies involved in this are 77,696. “A total of 345 addresses have at least 20 companies operating from the same address. The total number of companies sharing their address with at least 19 more companies are 13,581 in number,” said SIT.
SIT has asked CBDT, CBEC and enforcement directorate (ED) to investigate these companies. Meanwhile, SIT chairman M.B. Shah said India is prepared to give Herve Falciani and other whistleblowers “full cooperation” in the fight against the menace of black money. “He is not giving reply. He has created a wrong hue and cry. We want to tell him that please give it (information) to SIT or to the government or to a journalist. Please, you (Falciani) share it in the interest of the country,” he said. Justice Shah said the request of Indian investigative and enforcement agencies in this regard was communicated to Falciani by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and SIT earlier.
The finance minister Arun Jaitley too asked the whistleblower to share details without putting any pre-condition. “The government of India is making all efforts to bring the details (of black money accounts). The number of prosecutions that we launched in last one year were not done earlier,” Mr Jaitley said. “Whoever has whatever details, he or she should give it to us instead of putting any pre-conditions,” he said.
