Complying with its directions, the Centre today gave to the Supreme Court a list of 627 Indians who have accounts in HSBC bank, Geneva, in which tax probe for suspected blackmoney has to be completed by March next year.
The documents containing correspondence with French authorities, names of the account holders and the status report of the probe conducted so far in black money cases were submitted in separate sealed covers by the Attorney General which the apex court did not open.
Instead, the Court said the envelopes would be opened by Chairman M B Shah and Vice Chairman Arijit Pasayat, both former judges of the Supreme Court, who are part of the court-appointed Special Investigation Team, and decide on future course of action.
The Centre submitted that almost half of the account holders are resident Indians who could be prosecuted under the Income Tax laws and rest of them are NRIs.
Appearing before a bench headed by Chief Justice H L Dattu, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi said that some of the account holders have already admitted to having accounts and having paid taxes.
Rohatgi said that details of account holders are of 2006 which were supplied by the French government to the Centre in 2011. Most transactions in those accounts took place during 1999 and 2000 and the last date for completion and assessment in all these cases is March 31, 2015.
He said the IT Act has been amended. Instead of six years, now the prosecution for tax evasion can be initiated upto 16 years of commission of the offence, he said.
A day after directing the Centre to give all names of account holders, the bench, also comprising justices Ranjana Prakash Desai and Madan B Lokur, refused to go through the list and ordered that the sealed envelopes be sent to the SIT whose Chairman and the Vice-Chairman will only be authorised to open them.
