Govt seeks data from 'Volcker' companies

Finance Minister P Chidambaram today said the tax department had asked a few companies named in the Volcker report to disclose information on deals relating to UN's oil-for-food programme in Iraq.

"It will be premature to disclose too much on this but we have asked a few companies to come and share with us some records and information in their possession," the finance minister said at the Economic Editors' Conference.

Last week, the revenue department started examining tax returns filed by 133 Indian companies named in the Volcker report to look for instances of tax evasion.

The firms named included Reliance Industries, Tata International, Godrej & Boyce and Kirloskar Brothers apart from public sector companies State Trading Corporation, Rites Ltd and Balmer Lawrie.

Revenue department officials said former chief justice of India RS Pathak was also examining the issue. "We are essentially looking into investments made by the companies mentioned in the report besides transactions and the people involved," said an official.

Officials said the department was in the process of finalising the details of payments made in oil deals.

Chidambaram said neither the government not the Congress had threatened to sue the UN for naming former external affairs minister K Natwar Singh and the party in the Volcker report.

"On November 3, two statements were issued -- one by the Prime Minister's Office and another by the Congress party.... Nowhere the words "sue" had been used," he said.

All that the Congress statement said was that it would issue a comprehensive legal notice seeking full disclosure of the deals, he said. Subsequently, a comprehensive legal notice, signed by a lawyer, was sent.