Following a massive investigation by a consortium of news outlets on the world of offshore financing and its resultant pathways to tax evasion by the wealthy in India and across the world, the Centre on Monday announced that investigating agencies would look into the case.
“The government has directed today that investigations in cases of Pandora Papers leaks in the media…would be monitored through the Multi Agency Group (MAG) headed by the CBDT Chairman [J.B. Mohapatra]. The MAG will have representatives from CBDT, Enforcement Directorate, Reserve Bank of India and Financial Intelligence Unit,” the ministry said in a statement.
“Relevant investigative agencies would undertake investigation in these cases and appropriate action would be taken in such cases as per law,” the CBDT said in a statement.
“With a view to ensure effective investigation in these cases, the government will also proactively engage with foreign jurisdictions for obtaining information in respect of relevant taxpayers/entities,” it added.
The announcement comes a day after the International Consortium of Investigative Journalism released its findings from the Pandora Papers investigation.
Calling this investigation the world’s “largest-ever journalistic collaboration”, the ICIJ says the data exposes the “offshore secrets” of over 330 politicians, 130 Forbes billionaires, celebrities, fraudsters, drug dealers, royal family members and leaders of religious groups around the world. Details on these offshore assets include those of “35 current and former country leaders”, the ICIJ says.
The Pandora Papers includes data on 27,000 companies and 29,000 “ultimate beneficial owners” from 11 offshore service providers. Nearly 12 million documents from a total of 2.94 terabytes of data are included in the disclosure.
More than 300 Indian names are included in its findings. Anil Ambani, Vinod Adani, Jackie Shroff, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Niira Radia, Sachin Tendulkar and Satish Sharma, among others, figure in the list of Indians in the “Pandora Papers” revealed so far.
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw on Monday said her husband’s offshore trust was “bonafide and legitimate” and accused media stories reporting on the Pandora Papers of “wrongly” implicating it. "
“Media stories reporting on Pandora Papers wrongly implicate my husband's offshore trust, which is a bonafide, legitimate trust and is managed by Independent Trustees. No Indian resident holds ‘the key’ to the trust as alleged in these stories," Mazumdar-Shaw tweeted.
Sachin Tendulkar’s attorney said his investments were legitimate, and had bene declared to tax authorities, the ICIJ report noted.
Rights group Oxfam India has called for immediate action by authorities and abolishing tax havens following the expose of the Pandora Papers.
"Tax havens cost governments around the world $427 billion each year. Developing countries are being hardest hit, proportionately. Corporations and the wealthiest individuals that use tax havens are outcompeting those who don't. Tax havens also help crime and corruption to flourish," Oxfam India CEO Amitabh Behar said.
With inputs from PTI
