Yash Birla among 5 more named by Swiss authorities
■ Birla denies having any Swiss account; 4 others found to have accounts in Swiss banks
Berne, Switzerland: Industrialist Yash Birla and two Mumbai- based individuals are among the five Indian nationals with Swiss bank accounts whose names have been made public in Switzerland’s official gazette with regard to ongoing tax probes against them in India. The other two are Gurjit Singh Kochar, son- in- law of late realty baron Ponty Chadha, and a Delhi- based businesswoman, Ritika Sharma.
Berne, May 26: Industrialist Yash Birla, as also two Mumbai- based individuals behind City Limousines scam, are among five Indian nationals with Swiss bank accounts whose names have been made public in Switzerland’s official gazette with regard to the ongoing tax probes against them in India.
The other two are Gurjit Singh Kochar, son- in- law of late realty baron Ponty Chadha, and a Delhi- based businesswoman Ritika Sharma.
The names of these five “Indian nationals” have been made public in Switzerland’s Federal Gazette with regard to details sought about them by the Indian authorities.
Among these, some details have already been shared by the Swiss Federal Tax Administration ( FTA) with India, including about Birla and Sharma of Blessings Apparel.
These are in addition to the two other Indians — Sneh Lata Sawhney and Sangita Sawhney — whose names have also been made public in similar manner for being probed by the Indian tax authorities.
In case of Sayed Mohamed Masood, being probed for a major ponzi scheme run from Mumbai through City Limousines, some details were shared by the Swiss authorities in the past.
His accounts were also frozen a few years ago following a request from the Enforcement Directorate.
Fresh details about him and about Chaud Kauser Mohamed Masood have been sought by the Indian authorities, as per the notifications published in Switzerland’s official gazette.
There was no reply to queries mailed to Birla’s office, while repeated calls to Sharma did not elicit any response.
Earlier also, when Birla’s name had come out in a leaked HSBC list of Swiss bank accounts, he had declined to comment.
However, the Yash Birla Group on Tuesday came out with a statement saying, he ( Yash Birla) has “no individual bank account in his name or under his control”.
It also said this position has already been communicated to the tax authorities here.
“Mr Yash Birla has no individual bank account in his name or under his control. This has been explicitly confirmed earlier by the Swiss bank in writing and the same has already been communicated to the Indian tax authorities,” an official spokesperson of Yash Birla Group said.
Birla is one of the seven ‘ Indian nationals’ whose names have been made public through such gazette notifications.
Yashovardhan Birla, who is commonly known as Yash Birla, is chairman of the group whose group firms are into steel products, electrical appliances, health, lifestyle and education, among others.
Two separate notifications, dated November 11 and December 16, 2014, have been published in the gazette about Birla.
The first one concerns a request received by the Swiss Federal Tax Authority and the second is about the information having been provided to the Indian authorities.
Yash Birla has no individual bank account in his name or under his control. This has been confirmed earlier by the Swiss bank and the same has already been informed to the Indian tax authorities
— YASH BIRLA GROUP