Black money: Some new names have been revealed whose veracity will be checked, says Arun Jaitley

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday said that 60 prosecutions have been launched and the government has put in vigorous efforts towards digging black money during the last 6 to 7 months.

The Finance Minister said, "Most of the names revealed in the list today are known to the government. Some new names have been revealed whose veracity would be checked by authorities."

He further added, " 350 account holders' assessment is done and the rest will be completed by 31st March."

He was reacting to a story in the Indian Express, which said that 1,195 Indian names figure in the HSBC list with a total balance of Rs 25,420 crore, as part of an investigation by an international body of journalists.

Many of the names have already been disclosed, but there are some new additions, including that of prominent corporate leaders, politicians, NRIs and others.
Many of these accounts could be legitimate.

Also read: Black money probe: Government to disclose 60 names; starts legal proceedings

Jaitley also added that he had met top Swiss authorities in Davos and agreed with them that admission by assessees would be considered additional evidence.

Also read: Black Money probe: SIT will take appropriate steps over information provided: BJP

Apart from these accounts, Jaitley said, the revenue department is in touch with the informants for more names.

"Let me clarify in the first round these names which were of HSBC Bank, all these names were not of (all) Swiss banks but of one bank HSBC...In that connection the Government of India and the Revenue Department they did some communications at that time (4-5 years ago). These were details of 628 accounts," he said.

In the list, there were some entries with only names, while some accounts were identifiable and some were not, he added.

Meanwhile, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal said that the party stood vindicated as the names it had revealed in connection with black money earlier is present in the HSBC bank's Geneva branch list naming 60 Indians and entities involved. 

“The names I revealed in a PC on 9 Nov 2012 are there in IE list today. We stand vindicated. But bigger Q is - what did 1st Cong and nw BJP do? Nothing? Why? Some of ths ppl claim to hv both BJP n Cong in thr pocket. Why doesn't BJP govt act against HSBC officials? They will spill beans. US did precisely that,” the AAP leader tweeted. 

Earlier in December, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) had submitted a report to the Supreme Court which revealed that persons on the HSBC list held Rs. 4,479 crores in Swiss banks.

In an official statement released by the SIT, it had said that out of 628 names on the HSBC list received from France, 201 are either non-residents or non-traceable, leaving 427 persons' cases as actionable cases.

Also read: 4 facts about Indian black money stashed in HSBC Bank, Switzerland

The Supreme Court had directed the Centre to ensure that the ongoing probe on those suspected of stashing black money in bank accounts abroad is completed by March 2015.

Recovering the black money stashed abroad was also a prominent topic in the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's election manifesto for the Lok Sabha polls.

(With agency inputs)