Black money: SIT reviews work of probe agencies

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) on black money today reviewed the work done by various agencies in connection with their respective probes in tax evasion, duty theft and money laundering cases.
The meeting held in the national capital is seen as important as the high-powered panel is soon expected to file a fresh status report in the Supreme Court regarding the action taken by various agencies in cases related to illegal funds stashed abroad by Indians and similar cases within the country.
Sources said the panel chaired by SIT Vice Chairman Justice (retd) Arijit Pasayat took stock of the probe done by the agencies, the action taken and later issued some directions vis-a-vis taking the cases forward.

The high-powered panel, according to the sources, had sometime back begun the exercise of compiling facts and figures for preparing a new report and the final compilation 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.
Sources had said the panel, headed by former Supreme Court judge 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 among 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.