I-T dept to file 100 new complaints in HSBC black money list

The Income Tax (I-T) department plans to file another 100 new prosecution complaints against entities and individuals figuring in the HSBC black money list for wilful evasion of income tax.

According to sources, the department is also expected to collect an additional revenue of Rs 3,200 crore after completing assessment and prosecution of these cases as taxes and penalties.

Some 100 or more prosecution cases would be filed by the tax department before March 31 in the HSBC Geneva branch black money cases.

Already, about 60 such complaints have been filed till now, a source privy to the development told news agency PTI. So far, Rs 3,150 crore has been collected as tax.

"The total amount of tax collection after the new cases related to the HSBC list will work out to around Rs 6,350 crore", an official said.

The I-T Department is investigating about 240 cases linked to the HSBC bank accounts in Geneva in which Indian nationals have stashed black money.

Union finance minister Arun Jaitley had said that the government will make public the names of people who have illicit wealth in offshore accounts once formal charges are framed.

Till December 31 last year, assessments were completed in 128 of these cases by the I-T Department out of the total 628 Indian names or entities reported on the stolen HSBC list, provided by France to India.

Out of the said 628 people, 200 were either non-residents or nontraceable leaving 428 cases to be actionable for tax officials to investigate. For these 428 actionable cases, the government had said that the net amount of peak balance was about Rs 4,500 crore.

Jaitley had asked the IT Department to complete these cases before March 31 after which they would become time-barred and no legal proceedings can be launched.

There are a number of cases of account holders included in the HSBC list which were investigated by the I-T Department independent of the HSBC list obtained from France.

Switzerland has agreed to share information related to HSBC and Liechtenstein lists provided there is independent evidence collected by Indian authorities. A senior official said that the way is now clear for the I-T Department to get more information regarding these accounts.

The Swiss have so far completely refused to give any details on the grounds that these names were stolen documents obtained in breach of Swiss law.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes, which is supervising the IT action vis-a-vis the HSBC list, recently asked the probe wings to initiate action with regard to obtaining assistance from foreign countries in taking these cases to their logical conclusion.