By IANS,
New Delhi : Nearly two years after Germany passed on the names and bank account details of 18 Indians who have stashed their wealth in a Liechtenstein bank to evade taxes, a weekly Friday claimed to have accessed the list which the government has repeatedly said couldn’t be made public.
Tehelka magazine said that it has accessed 16 of the 18 names, of which they have put out 15 on their website.
The alleged ill-gotten wealth was stashed in the LGT bank of Liechtenstein, a known tax haven west European nation, 190 km from Munich in Germany.
“These names include individuals as well as trusts. At this point, we are putting out 15 names without disclosing details like their addresses, the businesses they are involved in and the total money they have stored away in Liechtenstein,” the magazine said.
Germany had handed over the list to the Indian government March 18, 2009.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee have repeatedly maintained that the list couldn’t be made public.
The government’s stand drew flak from opposition parties that have been insisting that the names must be disclosed.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accuses the government of shielding the names of the tax evaders and not doing enough to bring back the crores of rupees stashed away in foreign banks.
The magazine said it was abiding by the “basic journalistic principle of (giving) the accused an opportunity to present their side of story”.
“Once these individuals respond, we shall share the full details of who these people are and what they do,” it said.