Speed up black money probe

Accounts held by Indians in foreign banks have again come into the focus with the disclosures made by an internationally co-ordinated media investigation.

The investigation has given details of 1,195 accounts held by Indians in a Swiss subsidiary of the multinational bank HSBC. This is on top of 628 names provided to India by French authorities in 2011. The UPA government, which got the list then, chose to sleep on it though claims were made that the details were being pursued.

But there was no progress in the investigation even when names and actionable clues were available. The latest list also includes businessmen, traders, politicians and some NRIs. What the publication of the list shows in the first place is the failure of the government to get the names even when it has been claiming that it is in hot pursuit of black money held in foreign banks.

If a private investigation by the media could get at these names, an investigation by official agencies with all the resources and powers at their disposal could have yielded more information much earlier.

Finance minister Arun Jaitley has said that government agencies have completed investigations into 350 accounts in the original HSBC list. A sum of Rs 3150 crore of unaccounted income has reportedly been found in these accounts.

The pace of the investigation is very slow and is in stark contrast with the claims made by BJP leaders, especially Prime Minister Narendra Modi, before the elections last year.

The promise was that all the black money stashed away abroad would be brought back to the country in 100 days of a BJP government coming to power and the money in the accounts would be distributed among all Indians. The party is now trying to wriggle out of this promise.

It is true that all the accounts held by those whose names have been disclosed now may not be illegal. But they need to be probed diligently and sincerely. The accounts held about Rs 25,000 crore in 2006-07 and if the investigations are not completed by this year end, there will be a time bar on them. The finance minister says mere names are not enough and there is need for evidence too.

It is for the government to bring the evidence. It is after the Supreme Court set up a Special Investigation Team that the investigations got a momentum. The SIT should probe the latest disclosures too.

The country’s regulatory and legal regime should also be strengthened by signing agreements with other countries on automatic exchange of information on financial dealings and accounts of Indians abroad.