Revealing Names of Foreign Bank Account Holders
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: Ocotber 29, 2014 -

In a major development in the black money case, the Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the Central Government to reveal the names of all Indian account holders in foreign banks by Wednesday.

Earlier, the Government named Pradip Burman (former director, Dabur India Limited), Pankaj Chimanlal Lodhiya (Rajkot-based bullion TRADER) and Radha S Timblo (Timblo Private Limited) in its affidavit filed in the Supreme Court.

However, the Government came under criticism both from within and the Opposition for being 'selective' in revealing the names.

Following this, the Supreme Court also questioned the Government as to why it was providing protective umbrella to foreign bank account holders.

The revelation of all Indian foreign bank account holders will be of great help in prosecuting those people involved in the black money case.

Some reports claim a total exceeding USD 1.4 trillion are stashed in Switzerland.

Other reports, including those reported by Swiss Bankers Association and the Government of Switzerland, claim that these reports are false and fabricated, and the total amount held in all Swiss banks by citizens of India is about USD 2 billion.

What so be the report on the amount of money deposited in the Swiss banks, the revelation will at least help to crack down those people with huge amount of black money.

Following a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by noted jurist Ram Jethmalani and others in 2009, the Supreme Court passed an order to set up a Special Investigative Team (SIT) headed by two retired judges of the apex court to probe cases of black money.

So far, the Government has failed to bring back the money stashed in foreign banks.

The petitioners of the PIL claimed that Rs. 70 lakh crore of black money was stashed in foreign tax havens.

It was the feeling of the Apex Court that no effort was made to bring back the money stashed in foreign banks and no effort was made to disclose the names of those whose money was in the foreign banks.

Many economists feel that if the black money would have been brought back the economy of the country would have gone up. Per capita income would have gone up.

The income tax rate which people are paying — at 30 per cent — would have been reduced.

Since 1947, nobody thought for 65 years to bring the money stashed in foreign banks to the country.

Government has failed in its role for 65 years.

The Supreme Court’s order to the Central Government to reveal names of all Indian foreign bank account holders will help bring a great change to the country.

Those people involved in stashing huge amount of money through corrupt means can be prosecuted easily if things go well as per the order of the Supreme Court.