Dhananjay Mahapatra | TNN
New Delhi: “Is every government agency sleeping”, asked the Supreme Court in exasperation on Thursday after the Centre said it primarily treated money stashed abroad as tax evasion and promised to probe the money trail and impact on national security after the offenders faced prosecution.
“This matter needs complete backing of the Union government. What we find is that the ongoing probe is only against a person (Hasan Ali Khan) or a group of people (who held accounts in LGT Bank). Does it mean that no one else from India has an account in Swiss bank or in other foreign banks with suspected illegal money,” the court asked.
Solicitor general Gopal Subramanaiam said the government was alive to the problem and collecting information about illicit money parked abroad on a continuous basis. “We mainly deal it as a tax evasion. However, once the tax evasion comes under prosecution, other agencies can take this into account and probe the money trail,” he said.
“Did this mean no one is probing the source of black money? Did it mean no one tried to find whether the money parked abroad were proceeds from terrorist activities, drug peddling and other activities inimical to the national security? These are the main issues,” said the Bench.
No comments:
Post a Comment