Zee Media Bureau
New Delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday told the Parliament that the government has identified 427 foreign accounts holders and have sent notices to them.
Responding to a debate on the black money issue in the Rajya Sabha, Jaitley said the government was raising the bar for the investigation in the case and that 427 account holders have been identified.
He also informed that 250 account holders have admitted to having accounts in foriegn banks.
On October 29, the Central government had submitted before the Supreme Court a list of names of 627 Indians who have banks accounts in foreign banks.
Hitting back at the Opposition in the black money case, the finance minister said the NDA government was working under the directions of the Supreme Court on the case in contrast to the UPA who did not want the apex court to give orders.
On the question of making the names public, the finance minsiter said more prosecution cases will be filed in the next few weeks and once the cases go for prosecutions, the names would be made public.
We will be extremely pro-active in chasing black money account holders; the procedure will take time, but we will have foolproof procedure, he said.
Jaitley also said the first aim of the NDA government was to set up the Special Investigation Team (SIT) on black money and that it has shared many names with the agency.
The government today came under a blistering attack in Rajya Sabha on the issue of black money, with Congress asking it to apologise before people for "selling lies" or else fulfil the poll promise made to them.
The finance minister also informed the house that the government was in talks with Switzerland for automatic exchange of tax information.
