Black money: unauthorised disclosure can sabotage probe, says Jaitley

On the day Prime Minister Narendra Modi assured the country that his Government aims to bring back each penny of black money, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said unauthorised disclosure of foreign account holders’ names could sabotage probe and benefit the guilty.

In a Facebook post a few hours after the Prime Minister’s radio broadcast on Sunday, Jaitley wrote “unauthorised disclosure of information is fraught with both investigation and economic consequences…. They can attract sanctions in the form of withholding taxes.”

He said India had to take a “conscious call. Does it want to be a part of the global coalition which is moving in the direction of automatic sharing of information or not?” Questioning those, including the Congress, demanding disclosure of names in violation of tax treaties, Jaitley wrote: “The Congress Party’s stand is understandable. It does not want evidence to be forthcoming in support of the names available with SIT (special investigation team). Are some others ill informed, just indulging in bravado or are they Trojan horses?”

He said the confidentiality clauses made it incumbent that disclosure would be made only after prosecution is filed before a charging court.

“Thus the issue is not whether but when disclosure can be made. The debate is not between disclosure and non-disclosure of confidential information. It is between unauthorised disclosure in violation of tax treaties and disclosure as per tax treaties.”