Paradise Papers: Swift action will be taken against accused, says CBDT

The Chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on Tuesday said swift action will be taken in the Paradise Papers case once all details of the accused are available.

Talking to ANI here, CBDT Chairman Sushil Chandra said, "Only few names have come to fore in the Paradise Papers and the complete information is yet to come. Till the names and other details of the companies don't come, the action is not possible. However, once we have all the requisite details, immediate action will be taken against the accused."

The Paradise Papers is a set of 13.4 million confidential electronic documents relating to offshore investments that were leaked to the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung. The newspaper shared them with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, and some of the details were made public on November 5, 2017. More than 700 Indian names, including those of politicians, corporates and celebrities, also figure in the leaked details.

The CBDT chief also said the income tax department will issue notices to those who have not filed returns under the Operation Clean Money (OCM).

"In operation clean money, we have given enough time to the persons to file their income tax returns to come out clean. However, after the last day of the returns, a large number of people have not filed their returns. We are going to issue notice to such persons under section 142 (1) of the I-T Act (inquiry before assessment)," Chandra said.

The OCM was launched by the government to check black money post demonetisation.

He also said the returns filed will also be scrutinised whether they are correct or not.

"Those who have filed the returns, we will examine their returns with respect to the amount they have deposited during demonetisation to know whether they have disclosed their income correctly or not. Only in high susceptible cases, we can take those cases to scrutiny, or otherwise we will pursue small persons to come out clean to file their returns so that around 18 lakh persons, which we have targeted, and much more than that who are under scanner should file their returns and come out clean," said Chandra.

He also said that the OCM has been a very successful drive.

'The Operation Clean Money has been a very successful drive. We analyse the number of returns that were filed till last date on October 7. We found that in the individual category, there is an increase of 23.5 percent. If you see the number of persons who have availed the presumptive scheme, there is an increase of 50 percent in that category. It shows people want to come out clean. In overall returns, there is a growth of around 20 percent. There is an increase of 15 percent in tax collection," the CBDT chief said.

On November 8, 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced to demonetise 500 and 1000-rupee banknotes.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached black money worth Rs. 9,000 crore post demonetisation.

The department has also registered 3700 cases under FEMA (The Foreign Exchange Management Act) and PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) and taken action against 1000 shell companies.