New Delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday said new names of Indians with Swiss bank accounts have come up and their veracity will be checked while 60 prosecutions were launched, as a fresh HSBC list revealed by an international body of journalists named more Indians, including big corporates and political leaders.
Jaitley said the tax department has launched 60 prosecutions from an earlier list of Indian account holders in a Swiss branch of HSBC bank and most of the names revealed in Monday’s list are known to the government.
“Some new names have been revealed whose veracity would be checked by authorities,” he told reporters, while adding the government has put in vigorous efforts towards digging black money during the last 6-7 months.
According to a report in a leading daily, HSBC’s Indian list has doubled to 1195 names. French authorities had given a list of 628 names to the government in 2011. The total bank balance from these names comes up to 25,420 crores. This is expected to widen the scale of investigations on black money by the govt appointed SIT.
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. Jaitley said that he had met top Swiss authorities, including Switzerland’s Finance Minister, in Davos last month and it was agreed there that admission by assessees would be considered additional evidence to seek details.
The Special Investigation Team (SIT) on black money will hold a meeting on Monday to discuss status of cases of Indians found to have been holding illegal accounts abroad and disclosures made by an international private investigation.
Top sources in the SIT said the meeting, scheduled to be held as per roster, will review the cases of those Indian HSBC account holders whose cases are getting “time barred” by March 31.
They said some names disclosed by an investigation conducted by umbrella organisation– International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ)— are “new” and have not been reflected in the list in possession of the CBDT and the SIT. Â
The secret documents reveal names of over 100,000 alleged HSBC account holders, details of their accounts in Geneva and their balances for the year 2006-07, a total of over 100 billion dollars.
“The SIT had already solicited information against Indian blackmoney holders from the public. Some names have been reflected in the ICIJ list which has not been there earlier. These will be discussed during the meeting which was scheduled to be held today,” they said.
Sources said the snoop wings of the Income Tax department, Central Board of Direct Taxes and the Enforcement Directorate have been asked to take out any possible information on the new names and bring it on the table to be discussed at the SIT meeting.
“The new names will be brought under legal action only if there is any evidence against them. Only having names has not helped and it will not help in the future too,” they said.
 Sources said that those against whom legal action has been initiated include some corporates, business houses and other individuals as the Income Tax department has completed its probe and filed prosecution complaints against these entities.
They said the total amount in these accounts is estimated to be to the tune of Rs 1,500-1,600 crore.
Sources said the complaints, under I-T laws, have been filed in various courts of the country and investigations in these cases have been completed by the taxman as these cases will get “time barred” by March 31 after which any legal action against them could not be carried out as the cases pertain to the period of 2008-2009.
Senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Prashant Bhushan on Monday said that the people involved with stashing black money abroad need to be prosecuted adding that laundering of money needed to stop.
“The government did not even reveal the earlier list. They have been sitting on these names; first it was the Congress and now the BJP. This is corrupt money and these people need to be prosecuted. I had mentioned earlier as well that laundering of money needs to stop,” said Bhushan.
 The SIT, headed by retired Supreme Court Judge Justice M B Shah, had said in its last report to the government and the Supreme Court in December 2014 that the black money holders names in HSBC Geneva list will be taken to their logical conclusion soon.
(With inputs from agencies)