424 names in Panama probe

secretive, lax regulatory system in which it operates — to set up offshore entities in tax havens around the world.

The CBDT has said that a total of 424 names and 256 groups are under investigation in Panama papers cases under 13 Director General of Income Tax (DGIT) jurisdictions in the country. Of this, 140 names are from Mumbai, followed by 105 from Delhi, 39 from Kolkata, 33 from Bangalore and 20 from Ahmedabad.

While 249 of these are resident cases, 103 are non-resident. As many as 60 cases are not traceable. In the case of 349, their PAN numbers have been traced while summons have been issued in 370 cases. The government has received the response of 308 of them and 205 have admitted to their accounts while the number of “non-admitted” or “denied” is 77.

The Government has received 58 responses from foreign jurisdictions while a survey has been conducted in 11 cases. In 25 cases, search and seizure have been conducted.

Giving the summary of the status in HSBC foreign account cases, the CBDT said that so far, 190 prosecution complaints in HSBC cases have been filed in 77 cases. As per information received from France, there are 628 persons/entities. Of these cases, 569 persons have been traced so far. Of the 628 cases (including four duplicate entries), 207 were found Not Actionable. Of the actionable cases, assessments have been completed in 409 cases.

The government said that undisclosed income of about Rs 8437 crore has been brought to tax on accounts of deposits made in unreported HSBC foreign accounts.