New Delhi: Concerned by growing public
outcry over black money, some members of a Parliamentary panel
on Friday asked the government to expeditiously commence the
prosecution proceedings against the persons whose names figure
in such information provided by France and other countries.
"The (Standing Committee on Finance) members felt that
the Income Tax Department should launch prosecution as quickly
as possible against the guilty so that their names could come
out in the public domain," sources said.
A meeting of the committee headed by senior BJP leader
and former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha took place today.
The Income Tax Department is already probing a list of
700 Indians having accounts with banks in Geneva after the
government received information in this regard, reportedly
from the French government.
However, the government has not disclosed the names of
persons who were being probed by the Income Tax Department in
connection with stashing of unaccounted wealth in overseas
bank accounts.
The Finance Ministry officials, sources said, explained
to the committee that under the international tax treaties,
the government can only disclose the names of the persons at
the time of filing of prosecution proceedings.
There has been a public outcry over the black money issue
after it was taken up by social activists like Anna Hazare and
Ramdev.
BJP leader LK Advani too had asked the government to
disclose the names of 700 Indians who have accounts in Swiss
banks.
PTI
