Panama Papers: Queries sent to 12 countries about 91 'high risk' Indians
New Delhi: The Ministry of Finance has sent 91 references to 12 countries seeking financial and investment details of individuals named in the Panama Papers.
The 12 countries are the British Virgin Islands, Bahamas, United Arab Emirates, Luxembourg, United Kingdom, Gibraltar, Jersey, Singapore, Seychelles, United States, Switzerland and Cyprus.
According to a report in The Indian Express, the Foreign Tax and Tax Research (FTTR) division of the Ministry of Finance has sent these references over three months, and more will be dispatched soon.
The Multi-Agency Group, constituted the very day the first list of The Panama Papers was published, picked these 91 references from a masterlist of 297 Indians.
120 of the 297 Indians have admitted to income tax authorities that they had incorporated the offshore entities which figured in the data.
The references have been sent from among those who failed to admit that they have offshore entities linked to them, and have been categorised as ‘high risk’ individuals.
The largest number of references have been dispatched via the FTTR division by Income Tax (Investigation) units in Delhi (25), followed by Mumbai (22) and Hyderabad(16).
Four status reports have been submitted to the PMO by the Multi-Agency Group on this issue so far.
Officials will now be handing in a monthly report on the progress of the probe into The Panama Papers and follow-up action. The Special Investigation Team (SIT) on black money is also being regularly briefed on the progress.
Also, 360 summons have been issued by the Income Tax authorities in connection with The Panama Papers. Apart from the 297 names, several more individuals have been named as being either shareholders or beneficiary owners of a offshore entity.
