Black money: SIT to file fresh status report in SC

According to sources, data related to revenue collated by various agencies in the 2014-15 fiscal will also be a part of the report

The Special Investigation Team on unaccounted money is expected to file a fresh status report in the Supreme Court on action by various investigative agencies in cases related to illegal funds stashed abroad by Indians and on tax evasion.

Sources said the panel had sometime ago begun the exercise of compiling facts for the report and the final data is expected to include the action taken by the income tax department in connection with the 628 HSBC bank cases which got time-barred on March 31.

"The SIT may file a fresh status report within the first fortnight of this month in the Supreme Court. Subsequently, the report will also be given to the government," the sources privy to the development said.

Data related to revenue collated by various agencies in the 2014-15 fiscal will also be a part of the report, they said.

The sources said the panel, headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice (retd) M B Shah, has held at least two full-fledged meetings in the recent past with all the agencies under the SIT so that a comprehensive volume covering all aspects of the black money-related investigations could be covered in the next report.

The panel had earlier submitted two full reports to the government and amongst it many recommendations, declaring tax evasion a crime in India and encouraging the use of plastic money and making Permanent Account Number (PAN) card mandatory for high-value transactions were the prominent ones.

The next status report is also expected to chronicle the new announcements made in the latest Budget speech by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

The SIT was created by the Supreme Court and notified by the government last year to curb black money instances and heads of senior representatives of 11 premier central probe and enforcement agencies are on its board.