Indian black money in foreign banks: Timeline

November 1991: Swiss magazine Schweizer Illustrierte names former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi among 14 politicians, alleging he had some $2.2 billion in a Swiss bank account in his name.

March 2009: Senior lawyer and BJP leader Ram Jethmalani files a PIL seeking Supreme Court’s intervention in bringing back over Rs. 70,000 crore in black money stashed in tax havens abroad by Indians.


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June 2010: The apex court raps the government for doing little to bring back the money.

February 2011: The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) releases a booklet, “Indian Black Money Abroad in Secret Banks and Tax Havens”, which contains allegations against Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her late husband Rajiv Gandhi.

March, 2011: The Supreme Court says: “No consistent efforts have been made to trace the sources of money (stashed away). Fact remains that even today we have not made any progress in tracking the sources of money.”

June 2011: Then prime minister Manmohan Singh questions the calculation behind estimating black money stashed by Indians abroad ($89.16 billion) but said all possible steps were being taken to bring it back.

June 2011: High-level committee headed by M.C. Joshi, then Central Board of Direct Taxes chairman, appointed to study the generation and curbing of black money.

July 2011: Supreme Court sets up Special Investigation Team (SIT), to investigate the stashing away of black money in foreign banks and to take steps bringing it back in the country.

November 2011: India makes a commitment to G20 that it will remain an active member of the global battle against black money and will soon sign the Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters to curb it by sharing information.

February 2014: Manmohan Singh says his government shared the opposition’s views on getting back the black money stashed by some Indians in foreign banks, adding it would sit with political parties to seek help and see how the black money problem can be dealt with.

March 2014: Then finance minister P. Chidambaram says he had taken up the issue of black money of Indians stashed abroad.

March 2014: The Congress election manifesto said it will appoint a special envoy on black money.

March 2014: SC rejects the Centre’s plea seeking the recall of its order setting up SIT to probe into the flight of unaccounted money in foreign banks.

April 2014: Government discloses to the Supreme Court the names of 26 people who had accounts in banks in Liechtenstein – as revealed to India by the German authorities.

April 2014: Aam Aadmi Party promises to bring back black money stashed abroad.

April 2014: The BJP suggests setting up a task force to retrieve black money.

April, 2014: The court pulls up the government for doing nothing to comply with its July 2011 order and goes on to say: “In the name of the review petition you (government) don’t carry out our orders. This is nothing but the contempt of court.”

May 2014: Narendra Modi government announces the formation of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) on black money, headed by retired justice M.B. Shah.

July 2014: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley informs parliament that there is a positive response to requests made by India to Swiss banks.

July 2014: In its first budget, the government says the problem of black money to be fully addressed.

October 2014: Jaitley says the government won’t hold back any information on black money or names of account holders in tax havens, but the latter will be revealed after “following due procedure”.

October 2014: The government discloses names of businessmen Pradeep Burman and Pankaj Lodhiya, as well as Timblo Private Limited and its directors Radha Satish Timblo, Chetan S.Timblo, Rohan S. Timblo, Anna C. Timblo and Malika R. Timblo who are said to hold bank accounts abroad.

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