Can’t reveal black money details, Centre tells SC; Congress ups ante
18 Oct 2014 5:35 AM IST
Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi mentioned the fresh application before a bench led by Chief Justice H L Dattu, which put it for hearing on 28 October.
The application cited the double taxation avoidance agreement to state information relating to account holders in foreign banks could not be put in public domain by virtue of the treaty. The government, led by BJP had promised bringing back black money if it came to power, however, has now claimed that not all information could be disclosed. It also said that information can be provided only about the accounts after the treaty came to fore and not about past transactions.
However, appearing as petitioner in person in the PIL on the issue, senior advocate Ram Jethmalani strongly opposed the plea, saying the government sought to protect the ‘culprits’ and this application seemed to be moved on their behalf.
He sought dismissal of the application at threshold, calling it a very serious attempt by the government to circumvent the court orders on disclosing in national interest all information on black money account holders.
The court however said it would need to at least peruse the application before it passes any order.
Later in the day, finance minister Arun Jaitley said that names of persons under investigation for having black money account will be made public once the charges are filed in the court.
Jaitley claimed that the Swiss government has agreed to share information on Indians stashing illicit money there in certain cases, but blamed a 1995 agreement as the constraining factor in disclosing their names.
He said Switzerland has agreed to share information related to HSBC and Liechetenstein lists, provided there is independent evidence collected by Indian authorities. Besides, the Swiss government would ‘confirm the genuineness or otherwise’ details of foreign accounts of Indian citizens procured by intelligence agencies, Jaitley said.
‘The Government of India is taking all necessary steps to access tax-related information from foreign governments… Black money stashed abroad will be brought back,’ he said, disclosing details of the discussions held by an official delegation with Swiss government which returned on Friday morning.
Meanwhile, the Congress trained its guns at prime minister Narendra Modi over the issue. Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi cited four tweets by Modi before the Lok Sabha elections in which he had slammed the previous Manmohan Singh government for its ‘lack of commitment’ to bring back black money from foreign banks. He said, ‘People should now decide whether Modi’s pre-poll promise to bring back black money was mere rhetoric’ or not.’
‘This is not only a hiatus between the words and deeds of BJP but sheer hypocrisy and dishonesty with the public of India. Modi government’s functioning is defined in the hiatus between speech and reality and action and words,’ he said. ‘One wonders whether his black money rhetoric was meant for pre-election audience,’ he added.
While recalling that the BJP had attacked the then UPA finance minister and now President Pranab Mukherjee after he had talked about the difficulty in naming the Swiss bank account-holders due to the secrecy clause, Singhvi said, ‘Will PM apologise for giving false hopes to the public?’
The application cited the double taxation avoidance agreement to state information relating to account holders in foreign banks could not be put in public domain by virtue of the treaty. The government, led by BJP had promised bringing back black money if it came to power, however, has now claimed that not all information could be disclosed. It also said that information can be provided only about the accounts after the treaty came to fore and not about past transactions.
However, appearing as petitioner in person in the PIL on the issue, senior advocate Ram Jethmalani strongly opposed the plea, saying the government sought to protect the ‘culprits’ and this application seemed to be moved on their behalf.
He sought dismissal of the application at threshold, calling it a very serious attempt by the government to circumvent the court orders on disclosing in national interest all information on black money account holders.
The court however said it would need to at least peruse the application before it passes any order.
Later in the day, finance minister Arun Jaitley said that names of persons under investigation for having black money account will be made public once the charges are filed in the court.
Jaitley claimed that the Swiss government has agreed to share information on Indians stashing illicit money there in certain cases, but blamed a 1995 agreement as the constraining factor in disclosing their names.
He said Switzerland has agreed to share information related to HSBC and Liechetenstein lists, provided there is independent evidence collected by Indian authorities. Besides, the Swiss government would ‘confirm the genuineness or otherwise’ details of foreign accounts of Indian citizens procured by intelligence agencies, Jaitley said.
‘The Government of India is taking all necessary steps to access tax-related information from foreign governments… Black money stashed abroad will be brought back,’ he said, disclosing details of the discussions held by an official delegation with Swiss government which returned on Friday morning.
Meanwhile, the Congress trained its guns at prime minister Narendra Modi over the issue. Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi cited four tweets by Modi before the Lok Sabha elections in which he had slammed the previous Manmohan Singh government for its ‘lack of commitment’ to bring back black money from foreign banks. He said, ‘People should now decide whether Modi’s pre-poll promise to bring back black money was mere rhetoric’ or not.’
‘This is not only a hiatus between the words and deeds of BJP but sheer hypocrisy and dishonesty with the public of India. Modi government’s functioning is defined in the hiatus between speech and reality and action and words,’ he said. ‘One wonders whether his black money rhetoric was meant for pre-election audience,’ he added.
While recalling that the BJP had attacked the then UPA finance minister and now President Pranab Mukherjee after he had talked about the difficulty in naming the Swiss bank account-holders due to the secrecy clause, Singhvi said, ‘Will PM apologise for giving false hopes to the public?’
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