The Government on Friday informed the lok Sabha that action was being taken against all those involved  in  tax evasion and parking of black money, including the ones named in the Panama case, and the notices issued by the  department concerned.

The members were told that though action has been taken, the tax laws do not allow the proceedings to be made public till cases are filed in courts.

Responding to questions on tax evasion and black money during question hour, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said in the Panama Papers leak case notices have been issued to all those whose names have appeared.

The Minister explained that Section 138 of the Income Tax Act bars the proceedings of a case be made public till a case is filed in a court.

Responding to another supplementary  in the lower house, Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha said the Government is looking into papers received from HSBC and Panama and the various laws, including the one on foreign black money, are being invoked.

On recommendations made by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) on black money, Sinha said a series of recommendations have been received and the Government has benefitted greatly by the suggestions of the SIT.

Names of around “500 Indians” including businessmen and  top film personalities  have reportedly been figured in the Panama documents.

The Government has created a Multi-Agency Group (MAG) of probe agencies to go into these cases, comprising the IT department (CBDT), its foreign tax wing, the RBI, Financial Intelligence Unit and the Enforcement Directorate.

The Panama Papers leaks contain an unprecedented amount of information, including more than 11 million documents covering 2,10,000 companies in 21 offshore jurisdictions. Each transaction spans different jurisdictions and may involve multiple entities and individuals.

BJD MP  Bhartruhari Mahtab wanted action against black money stressing that two years have passed since SIT was constituted with a mandate to ferret out black money from within and outside the country. BJP MP Kirit Somaiya raised the subject of money laundering and referred to the alleged Panama tax evasion cases.