HSBC: 120 cases filed, undeclared income more than doubles
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has told the Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up by the Centre that till March 31 this year, 120 cases were filed in courts across the country against those named in the HSBC black money list for non-disclosure of account details and tax evasion.
While about 30 cases each have been filed in Delhi and Mumbai, the remaining cases have been filed in Kolkata, Bangalore and Goa.
In its report submitted to the SIT a few days ago, the CBDT has said that the total amount of undisclosed income increased from about Rs 1,500 crore in 2014-end to Rs 4,700 crore by March 31. While the cases are currently being prosecuted, the account holders, if found guilty, will face a possible jail term and will also have to pay tax and penalties to the Income Tax department.
While the first case was filed in July 2014, the Income Tax department was still preparing its case for prosecution in 27 other cases when the SIT submitted its first report to the Supreme Court on August 13, 2014.
In February, The Indian Express in collaboration with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and Le Monde revealed that there were as many as 1,195 Indians in the HSBC list, while the Indian government had received only 628 names from the French authorities. The expanded list showed that there was Rs 24,000 crore in HSBC accounts belonging to Indians.
The Income Tax department has completed its assessment in 532 cases. The remaining 96 cases could not be traced, hence the investigations were closed. Only 412 of the 628 cases involve resident Indians, while only 339 cases had any amount mentioned against the accounts in the list provided by the French authorities.
The Income Tax department has managed to secure additional bank transactions details of 249 HSBC accounts through voluntary disclosures and other official and confidential channels.
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Source:Indianexpress
