By IANS,
New Delhi : After getting the accounts details of 50 Indians who have stashed away black money in a German bank, the government is now focusing on expediting bilateral treaties with countries which are safe havens for Indian black money.
Sources in the finance ministry Thursday said chief commissioners of income tax would discuss the issue at their four-day conference
here beginning June 8. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will inaugurate the conference.
The income tax department is in possession of details received from German authorities of some 50 persons who have parked their black money in a bank in Liechtenstein, a protectorate of Germany. The department has served notices to them.
The government is now focusing on renegotiating the 1984 double taxation avoidance agreement (DTAA) with Mauritius, another destination for Indian black money.
The DTAA with Mauritius has a secrecy clause which protects the identity of investors, resulting in many Indians opening “paper companies” there to evade tax.
Similar laws in the Isle of Man and Cayman Island are making these tax havens.
Negotiations are on with as many as 65 countries for amending the DTAAs as per the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) norms to help curb tax evasion. Article 26 in the OECD model tax convention refers to exchange of information related to taxation.
Letters have been written to governments of Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Gibraltar, Macau, Bahrain, the Seychelles and Congo for redrafting the DTAAs.
This commissioners’ conference will discuss the issue and the details of the 50 accounts unearthed in Germany at length.
The finance ministry is preparing a special note compiling detailed information of these accounts and the action taken.
The conference will also take up issues like investigation of cases like IPL and decentralisation of powers of the chief commissioners.