Panama leak: RBI warns against jumping to conclusions

Cautioning against jumping to conclusions with regard to the Panama papers, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday said it would have to look into the evidence to find out what is legitimate or not.

The Panama papers have disclosed a list of nearly 500 Indians including celebrities and industrialists who have allegedly stashed money in offshore entities in Panama, considered to be a tax haven.

The government has set up a task force and the RBI is a part of it, RBI Deputy Governor SS Mundra said on the sidelines of an event organised by Assocham here.

“It would be too hasty to jump to a conclusion that everything is illegitimate or everything is legitimate. There would be all kind of cases once the details are available, we will look into the evidence along with the team. Then it would be fair to reach to a conclusion,” he said.

Soon after the Panama Paper disclosure, the government set up a group, which includes officials from the CBDT, RBI and FIU (Financial Intelligence Unit) to investigate whether the money deposited in the tax heaven are legal or illegal.

RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan had said on Tuesday that the multi-agency probe would look into the legitimacy of such holdings of Indians named in the leaked Panama list.