Panama Papers: RBI warns against jumping to conclusions

Cautioning against jumping to conclusions on Panama Papers, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI, or central bank) on Wednesday said it would have to look into the evidence to find what was legitimate.

Panama Papers have disclosed a list of nearly 500 Indians, including celebrities and industrialists who have allegedly stashed money in offshore entities.

The government has set up a task force and the RBI is a part of it.

RBI Deputy Governor S S Mundra said on the sidelines of an event organised by Assocham here.

"It would be too hasty to jump to a conclusion that everything is illegitimate or everything is legitimate. There would be all kind of cases once the details are available, we will look into the evidence along with the team. Then it would be fair to reach to a conclusion," he said.

Soon after the Panama Paper disclosure, the government set up a group, which includes officials from CBDT, RBI and FIU (Financial Intelligence Unit) to investigate whether the money deposited in the tax heaven are legal or illegal.

RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan had said yesterday that the multi-agency probe will look into the legitimacy of such holdings of Indians named in the leaked Panama list.

It is important to note that there are legitimate reasons to have accounts outside and the LRS scheme allows you to take money outside, he had said.

Under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS), all resident individuals, including minors, are allowed to freely remit up to USD 2,50,000 per financial year for any permissible current or capital account transaction or a combination of both.

Besides, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) on black money is also investigate thoroughly the Panama Papers issue.

"Investigations are being carried out. We are going to investigate it (the list) thoroughly," SIT Chairman Justice (retd) M B Shah had said.