Unhappy with the ongoing probe being conducted by the Finance Ministry, a Parliamentary panel has directed it to expedite the inquiry into the names revealed by HSBC on unaccounted money stashed abroad and submit the report within a one month.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance, headed by BJP MP Yashwant Sinha, in its report tabled in lok Sabha on Monday termed that unaccounted or black money is a menace for the economy.
“The Committee find that action/investigation on the names reported by HSBC on unaccounted money stashed abroad has still not been concluded. The Committee, therefore, desire that expeditious action be taken to finalise the investigation in this matter and a report submitted to the Committee within one month on the outcome thereof,” it said.
Earlier the Government had informed Parliament that I-T department had received “certain information” under the double taxation avoidance agreement from the French government regarding accounts of Indians in HSBC Bank.
The report called for appropriate policy measures and deterrent enforcement to not only bring to book but also prevent generation in the first instance.
“Tax policies and tax administration will thus have to be accordingly geared up and re-oriented towards focused action in this direction,” the report said.
It further recommended that economic intelligence should be better developed and bipartite agreements be concluded with regard to plugging generation of unaccounted money through tax havens.
Focussing on the offer for sale (OFS) route being increasingly put to use by the Government, the panel has asked it to promote retail participation instead of selling shares of PSUs to institutions through the aforementioned route.
The committee is not in favour of OFS of shares route by promoters through Stock Exchange Mechanism, instead the Government should look for market penetration and encourage retail investors, the committee noted in its report. It also reiterated its earlier recommendation that the government should formulate a coherent disinvestment policy with clear direction and vision.
The report said that the committee regret to observe that in the absence of concrete disinvestment policy and lack of consistency in utilisation of disinvestment proceeds, the disinvestment proceeds of Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) over the years being treated as ‘selling family’s silver to pay grocery bills’.
All disinvestment proceeds being used for revenue expenditure are not socially justified, it said. “As a result the corpus of National Investment Fund (NIF) is left with a meagre amount of Rs 1,814.45 crore for investment purpose, therefore, sustainable returns from the disinvestment proceeds could not be earned,” the panel observed.
Considering the low balance of funds in NIF and its impact on returns, it said, the panel is not convinced with the proposal of utilising the budgeted disinvestment proceeds of Rs 40,000 crore in 2013-14 for recapitalisation of Public Sector Banks (PSBs) and towards budgetary support to the Indian Railways.
“As recommended elsewhere in this Report, the government could easily find resources for capitalisation of PSBs through early setting up of financial holding company or internal resources of PSBs. Similar steps may also be taken for Indian Railways,” it added.