Jaitley on black money: We will not withhold any names, but...

Rejecting the charge that the National Democratic Alliance has done a U-turn on disclosure of names of black money holders, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said the government will not be pushed into an act of adventurism and jeopardise the chances of getting cooperation of other countries in future.

The NDA government's approach on black money, the minister asserted, "is doggedly persistent -- not adventurist."

The government, Jaitley said in his Facebook post, "stands committed to detect the names, prosecuting the guilty and making them public. We are not going to be pushed into an act of adventurism where we violate the treaties and then plead that we are no longer able to get the cooperation of reciprocating states. Such an approach may actually help the account holders. Adventurism will be short-sighted. A mature approach will take us to the root of the matter."

The minister was apparently responding to the criticism over the government's refusal to disclose names of people having illicit accounts in foreign banks to the Supreme Court.

In an application with annexures running into about 800 ages, the Centre contended in the Apex court that it cannot disclose all information as the foreign countries with which India has double taxation avoidance agreement, have objected to making them public.

Critical of NDA government's approach on the black money, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi had on Friday said: "This is not only a hiatus between the words and deeds of BJP, but sheer hypocrisy and dishonesty with the public of India...One wonders whether his (Narendra Modi's) black money rhetoric was meant for pre-election audience."

In the run-up to Parliamentary polls, BJP had promised to bring back black money kept by Indians in overseas banks while targeting the UPA government for not taking effective action on the issue.

Refuting the criticism that NDA Government has done a U-turn on the issue of black money stacked up in Swiss bank accounts, Jaitley said, "nothing can be farther from the truth."

The NDA government, he added, "will not withhold any information, including names of account holders who have stashed black money abroad, from the public, but the names will be revealed after following the due process of completing investigations and reaching conclusions about quantum of unaccounted money."

After completion of the due legal process, he said, all the information including the names of black money account holders would become public in court proceedings arising from complaints to be filed by the Income Tax Department against tax offenders.

Any premature and out of court disclosure of the names of account holders would not only vitiate the investigations but would also enable such account holders to get away with their offences, Jaitley said.

"It will also violate India’s Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements with other countries and will choke receipt of all further information from those countries," the minister said.

Stating the UPA government did not appoint Special Investigation Team for three years despite a Supreme Court order, Jaitley said, Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his first cabinet meeting decided to appoint the SIT which has been functioning effectively.

Thereafter, he said, a team of officials led by Revenue Secretary signed a Joint Statement with the appropriate authorities in Switzerland with regard to investigation into black money stacked in Swiss banks.

"The choice before the NDA government is clear; violate the treaty and get no names in future or abide by the treaty, collect evidence, file charges in courts and let the names become public so that the account holders can be named and shamed.

"One act of adventurism of violating the treaty and discussing the name could perhaps jeopardise future co-operation from the reciprocating state," Jaitley said.

"Nobody has ever suggested that the names should not be made public. They should be made public in accordance with the existing due process of law. If that process is violated, you will never get to know the names in future," he noted.

All that the government has requested the Supreme Court is to clarify that it has not prohibited the government to enter into treaties with countries wherein a commitment may be made to maintain confidentiality of information received as per international standards, Jaitley said.

"If such a commitment to maintain the confidentiality is not given we will not receive any information about Indians hiding their money in other countries including offshore financial centres and tax heavens," he said.

Thus the clarification sought from the Supreme Court is only to facilitate collection of information about illegal money stashed abroad, Jaitley said.

Earlier, Supreme Court had directed the government of India to furnish the names to the petitioner, which has been given by Germany, he said.

Noting that those names were made public by the petitioner, Jaitley said Germans strongly objected to this as a violation of the tax treaty entered on June 19, 1995.

"The present NDA government has unfortunately inherited the legacy of that DTAA (Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement). We may have negotiated a better deal. If we scrap the treaty, we get no further information.

"The covenant to the treaty is that the names of the account holders and information received thereunder will only be disclosed when charges are filed in court. They obviously cannot be utilised for political propaganda or for political mileage," Jaitley said.

Meanwhile, Switzerland has agreed to share details with India about its citizens having unaccounted money there provided Indian authorities come up with independent evidence in such cases.

"Whenever India has some information/ documentary evidence, the Swiss would confirm the authenticity or otherwise of that evidence... This would be done in a time-bound manner," the Finance Minister said.

Further, Indian and Swiss authorities would start talks on bilateral agreement for automatic exchange of information in the banking system.