Panama Papers probe on, action as per law, says Arun Jaitley

During the reply, Jaitley said tax authorities are conducting investigations and prosecutions are being launched in cases where documents have been received.

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Finance Minister Arun Jaitley says tax authorities are conducting investigation into accounts mentioned in Panama papers.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said Thursday that every account named in the Panama Papers investigation is being probed and that nobody would be punished without a proper process. He tried to draw a comparison with Pakistan, where Nawaz Sharif was removed as prime minister following preliminary probe.

“Nobody has ever taken more action than this government on foreign account details which have come,” Jaitley said in Rajya Sabha while replying to a debate on the Banking Regulation (Amendment) Bill which was passed by the House later. Referring to the Panama Papers, the finance minister said, “We have a rule of law. We do not have a system like the neighbouring country where you remove first and then have a trial.”

During the reply, Jaitley said tax authorities are conducting investigations and prosecutions are being launched in cases where documents have been received. “We first make our own investigations and on each one of those cases, whether it is Liechtenstein cases or HSBC cases or other cases which have come to the notice or the Panama, in each case, we have been touch with the regular authorities of the country where these accounts are,” he said.

“Prosecutions are being filed wherever documents are coming. Assessment proceedings are being cleared and there is no prohibition on publishing their names once the prosecutions are filed because they are filed in India in open court,” the finance minister said. Jaitley said names are confidential as long as the matter is under investigation but the confidentiality clause ceases to exist once it reaches court.

Shubhajit Roy

Shubhajit Roy, Diplomatic Editor at The Indian Express, has been a journalist for more than 25 years now. Roy joined The Indian Express in October 2003 and has been reporting on foreign affairs for more than 17 years now. Based in Delhi, he has also led the National government and political bureau at The Indian Express in Delhi — a team of reporters who cover the national government and politics for the newspaper. He has got the Ramnath Goenka Journalism award for Excellence in Journalism ‘2016. He got this award for his coverage of the Holey Bakery attack in Dhaka and its aftermath. He also got the IIMCAA Award for the Journalist of the Year, 2022, (Jury’s special mention) for his coverage of the fall of Kabul in August 2021 — he was one of the few Indian journalists in Kabul and the only mainstream newspaper to have covered the Taliban’s capture of power in mid-August, 2021. ... Read More

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