News India Black money SIT decides to solve tax treaties' secrecy puzzle

Black money SIT decides to solve tax treaties' secrecy puzzle

New Delhi: Tasked with the job of recovering illicit wealth stashed away by Indians, the SIT on black money has decided to look into the contentious issue of secrecy clauses in India's tax treaties with

Germany had in 2010 provided the names of some Indians who held secret accounts in Liechtenstein's LGT Bank. These names were part of about 1,400 stolen bank account details purchased by Germany.

The Income Tax department alone has reported collecting 7,704 "discrete items" of information from treaty countries containing details of payments received by Indian citizens in various countries, besides information on LGT bank accounts.

The government had said that this information is in "various stages of processing and investigation". Also, during the last financial year, CBDT's foreign taxation wing made more than 175 requests to treaty partner countries in case of "specific taxpayers".

Investigators probing these cases have confirmed that a number of these are good from the point of view of getting revenue and achieving success during prosecution for tax evasion and cheating of foreign exchange.

The SIT, formed upon the directions of Supreme Court, had held its first meeting on June 2 here and will meet again in the middle of this month for a second time. Retired apex court judge Arijit Pasayat is the Vice Chairman of the SIT while top officials of 11 high-profile agencies and departments are its members.

The government, after the first meeting of the SIT, had said that the detailed modalities of proceeding further with the Supreme Court mandate were discussed and the roadmap decided.

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