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Why
hide names of foreign account holders, asks apex court
Friday January 14, 2011 06:52:00 PM,
IANS
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Related Articles |
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No
request from India for secret bank data: Swiss Ambassador
The Switzerland government has not received any request from the
Indian government for sharing the names of tax evaders who have
stashed away their illicit money in Swiss banks, the Swiss
Ambassador to India Philippe Weiti said Wednesday.
» |
New Delhi: The Supreme
Court Friday asked the central government what was its difficulty
in disclosing the names of people who have stashed away huge
amounts of money in Swiss and German banks in Liechtenstein
principality in Europe.
"What is the privilege" in not disclosing their names, asked the
apex court bench of Justice B. Sudarshan Reddy and Justice
S.S.Nijjar.
"It is not a case of tax. The issue involved is of serious nature.
Keep aside all the things. Let us consider about the persons
(those disclosed by the German authorities)," the court told
Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium.
"If you don't have them (the names), it is a different matter,"
the court said, suggesting that when the government has the names,
why cannot these be made public.
At this, Subramanium sought the adjournment of the hearing, saying
that he needed to seek instructions from the government.
The matter will come up for hearing Wednesday.
In the course of the hearing, senior counsel Anil Diwan, appearing
for petitioner Ram Jethmalani, said the government was
deliberately not making the names public.
He said the government was going in a wrong direction by taking
the cover of the double taxation treaty between India and Germany.
The entire issue concerns black money, Diwan contended.
Jethamalani has moved the apex court seeking directions to the
central government to act on the report that the German government
was willing to share the details of Indians who were having
accounts in the banks based in Liechtenstein.
Jethamalani has sought the court's directions to the government to
bring back ill-gotten $1.5 trillion put away in foreign banks by
Indians.
The German government had said that it accessed the information on
the details of the account holders through its sources.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), in its status report
during last hearing of the case, said there are twelve trusts
owned by 26 tax assesses, which even include NRIs, that hold
accounts in the Swiss and German banks in Liechtenstein.
There are 15 banks in Liechtenstein, of which seven are Swiss. The
principality, with an area of about 160 sq km, is surrounded by
Switzerland and Austria and has a total population of 67,000
people.
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