Switzerland likely to share HSBC accounts data in 10 days: Goyal
New Delhi, Aug 7: Finance Minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday said that Swiss government is likely to share the HSBC accounts data in about 10 days, after the Supreme Court of Switzerland ordered it to share data with India.
"The Supreme Court of Switzerland has ordered the Swiss government to share with us the data. In about a week or 10 days, that is going to get formalised," Goyal informed the Rajya Sabha during Question Hour.
He said that HSBC list was released somewhere in the year 2010-11, and from 2011-12 till 2014, the government kept trying to make an effort but was stalled by the Swiss government from getting any information on the ground that this is a secret information.
"It is only after this government came in that we sent our Revenue Secretary to Switzerland. We had high-level discussions with the government of Switzerland and a joint statement was issued in October 2014, in which both sides agreed that they will share information with each other and since then we have started getting information on the HSBC accounts from Switzerland," he said.
Responding to supplementaries, he said with regard to HSBC, the already undisclosed income of Rs 8,448 crore has been brought to tax.
"The tax demand of Rs 5,447 crore has been raised and a penalty of Rs 1,290 crore levied in 164 cases so far. 199 prosecution complaints have been filed in 84 cases," he said.
On Panama Papers, he said, it contains details of 426 persons. "Investigations are going on in all the cases. So far, 62 invasive actions have been conducted which included search, seizure action in 50 cases and survey action in 12 cases."
Goyal said that criminal prosecution complaints have been filed in 16 cases and in 33 cases, notices under Section 10 of the Black Money Act have been issued.
"As an outcome of these investigations so far, undisclosed foreign investments to the tune of Rs 1,542.88 crore has been detected ... and the investigations continue," he said.
The Minister said that it was only under this government that the people have started increasingly filing their returns.
"The number of tax filers has increased by over 50 per cent in the last four years and the quantum of income-tax collected has also increased by about 75 per cent in the last four years. It has also stopped the leakages that were happening previously," he said.
He said the Modi government has given almost Rs 4 lakh crore to the poor in their bank accounts through direct benefit transfer.
The Minister refuted that the IMF has reduced India's growth projections and said that the country is slated to grow at a robust 7.3 per cent this year, 7.5 per cent next year and it will continue to be the world's fastest growing large economy in the world for the next two years.
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ED arrests Sandeepa Virk, 'cosmetologist' for alleged money laundering
New Delhi, Aug 13 (PTI): The Enforcement Directorate said on Wednesday it has arrested a woman, who claims to be an actor and a cosmetologist, under the anti-money laundering law in a case of alleged fraud and misrepresentation.
The agency said the purported links of the woman, Sandeepa Virk, with a Reliance Group executive, Angarai Natarajan Sethuraman (President, Corporate Affairs), are also under its scanner. Sethuraman, in a statement, denied any connection with Virk or any transactions related to her.
Virk was taken into custody under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on Tuesday after searches were conducted against her and her associates in Delhi and Mumbai over the last two days.
A special court sent her to the ED's custody till August 14, the agency said. The woman claims to be the owner of a skin care products selling website named hyboocare.com, which the ED claimed was a "front" for money laundering.
She and her associates are being probed for allegedly exerting undue influence through "misrepresentation" and "defrauding" individuals by soliciting money under false pretences.
According to an Instagram ID of Virk, she is an actor and entrepreneur and the founder of the said website.
The federal agency said in a statement that the woman was also "in touch with" Sethuraman, former director of erstwhile Reliance Capital Limited.
She was communicating with him regarding "illegal liaisoning", the ED claimed, adding that the searches at Sethuraman's residence "confirmed" these allegations.
"Besides, diversion of funds for personal benefit has also been unearthed during the course of the search action," it said.
The ED alleged that public money worth about Rs 18 crore belonging to Reliance Commercial Finance Limited (RCFL) was disbursed to Sethuraman in 2018 by "flouting" prudent lending norms.
The funds were lent under terms that allowed a deferment of the principal amount as well as the interest, with multiple waivers granted and no due diligence conducted, it said.
The ED claimed that besides this, a home loan of Rs 22 crore was provided by Reliance Capital Limited by "violating" the prudential norms. "A large part of these loans are seen to have been eventually siphoned off and remained unpaid," it alleged.
Sethuraman, in a statement, dismissed the allegations as "baseless". He denied any connection with Virk or any transactions related to her.
Detailing about Virk's web portal, the agency said it purportedly sold FDA-approved beauty products. However, the ED said the products listed on the website have been found to be non-existent and the portal lacks a user registration option and is plagued by persistent payment gateway issues.
A scrutiny of the website uncovered minimal social-media engagement, an inactive WhatsApp contact number and an absence of transparent organisational details, all of which reinforce the finding of "non-genuine" commercial activity, the ED claimed.
"These factors, including limited product range, inflated pricing, false claims of FDA approval and technical inconsistencies, indicate that the website serves as a front for laundering funds," it said.
Another social media-hosted bio data of the woman said she is a certified cosmetologist.
The ED said several "incriminating" documents were seized during the searches and the statement of a man named Farrukh Ali, stated to be an associate of Virk, was recorded.
The money-laundering case stems from an FIR lodged by the Punjab Police.
Sethuraman said that the home loan he received from Reliance Capital was granted following due process and was secured by the property offered as collateral.
