New Delhi: Income Tax department has dispatched detailed questionnaires to nearly 50 people whose name were appeared in the recently leaked confidential documents of Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca.
According to the Indian Express, there are two parts of the notice. The first part seeks clarification on whether they are the persons named in documents and whether they gave comments attributed to them on the offshore entities listed against their names.
The second part is a more detailed questionnaire which seeks reply on questions like permissions sought before incorporating the offshore entity, manner in which money was routed, details of shareholders/directors/beneficial owners of the offshore entity, details of transactions and deposits in it, details of assets and etc.
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All of them have been given three days to respond, it said.
A massive leak of 11.5 million tax documents has exposed the secret offshore dealings of around prominent figures globally. The documents included the names of nearly 500 Indians, including celebrities and industrialists, who are said to have parked funds in offshore accounts in transactions brokered by the law firm.
The vast stash of records, covering around 40 years, was obtained from an anonymous source by German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung and shared with media worldwide by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).
The Narendra Modi government has set up a committee comprising members from different agencies (Financial Intelligence Unit, the Foreign Tax and Tax Research division and the investigative unit of the CBDT, and the RBI) to probe the Panama Papers. The multi-agency group held its first meeting on April 7.
