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The government on Tuesday made its intention clear by asserting that it has no inhibition in following the Supreme Court's order in placing the entire list of names of those having black money stashed in foreign banks by tomorrow morning before the apex court.
Speaking to media here, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley emphatically expressed the government's keenness in getting to the root of the matter so that the account holders' names comes out and they could face legal action and eventually bring back the money lying in foreign shores back to the country.
"The government has absolutely no difficulty in giving it to either the court, and the government shall place the list before the court, because, the government has already given it to the court constituted SIT," he said.
" The government is keen that by whatever procedure in accordance with law, we must get to the root of the matter and the truth about these names as also these accounts must come out so that penal action can be taken against the people and the money is lying there can be brought back to India," he added.
Clearing government's stand of not protecting anybody in this case, Jaitley said, "The government has no difficulty whatsoever with any agency investigating this matter, because, there is nobody that the government wants to protect in this case. So, that those whose names have come up must really be investigated and punished according to law."
The Finance Minister also reminded about maintaining the sanctity in terms of following the procedures so that India continues to receive help from countries who are giving the names of those having black money accounts in foreign shores.
"The government is also keen that the procedure followed must be such that the reciprocating countries continue to co-operate with us. And therefore, since the government had already on the June 27 given this list to the SIT, the government has no difficulty in placing the entire list and the same will be placed before the court tomorrow morning," he added.
Welcoming the Supreme Court's decision directing the Centre to reveal all names of black money account holders , the Congress hoped that those found guilty in this case should be punished according to the rule of law.
"In five months they (Government)could only disclose 3 names by means of an affidavit before the court. We welcome SC's decision to direct Centre to reveal all the names," said Congress spokesman Ajay Maken here at a press conference.
"Rajnath Singh had said they will bring back all the black money in 100 days, we want those promises fulfilled. Any one found guilty in this case should be punished according to the law strictly," he added.
Earlier in the day the Supreme Court asked the Union Government to release all the names of the people who have stashed their black money in accounts abroad. This order came after the latter had released the names of three account holders on Monday.
The government has till tomorrow to disclose the names to the apex court.
Earlier today, Aam Admi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal reportedly said that he would file an affidavit in the Supreme Court with the names of at least more such people who have illicit wealth stashed away abroad. He also accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of harbouring and protecting such people.
"If BJP discloses all black money holders' names, then who will give them money to fight elections in some states and buy MLAs in others," he tweeted.
On Monday, the government in an affidavit to the Supreme Court had named three people who had accounts in Swiss banks with black money Pradip Burman, former executive chairman of Dabur; Pankaj Chimanlal Lodhiya, a Rajkot-based bullion trader and Radha S. Timblo, a Goa based miner and owner of Timblo Pvt Ltd.
The government is building pressure particularly on Switzerland, seeking details of Indians who have parked unaccounted for money in the Alpine country's highly secretive banks. It has quickly implemented a Supreme Court directive to set up a high powered special investigation team, headed by retired judge MB Shah, to look into the issue.
While there are no official estimates, Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a Washington-based think-tank, has estimated that Indians had parked USD 462 billion in overseas tax havens between 1948 and 2008.
