By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, JUNE 16, 2013: AS per the latest data release by the US-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), names of 498 Indians and Indian companies having bank accounts in tax havens have been made public. As per the worldwise expose named 'Secrecy for Sale', these Indian persons have made good use of tax havens like Cayman Islands, Cook Islands, British Virgin Islands etc.

In the list released, at least two government officials' residential addresses also figure prominently Such as D-II, Vinay Marg, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi. And the second address is that of CPWD Quarters, Vasant Vihar. As per the expose, the resident of this official quarter is a Director of Crest Strategies Ltd, which is a Dubai-based company, and has accounts in tax havens.

A good number of Indians and Indian companies, which figure in the list, are from Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Vadodara, Ahmedabad and Kolkata. All posh colonies in these big cities figure prominently in this list. Some of them are Greater Kailsh, Golf Links and Defence Colony in Delhi, and Race Course Road and Pycrofts Garden Road in Chennai.

One may think that rich people are concentrated only in the big cities but it is not true. There are certain names in the exposted list, which are from places like Ludhiana, Ajmer, Muzaffarpur, Bellary, Raipur, Kurukshetra, Pondicherry and Kochi.

Reacting to this news one senior bureaucrat said that he was not surprised by disclosure of Vinay Marg address and a good number of inhabitants belonging to a particular All India Service from Chanakyapuri have some sort of real estate abroad, and they are forced to keep accounts in tax havens.

Interestingly, India has been signing TIEAs with all these small island-based tax havens but not much information has been received so far. Only two days back, the CBDT has notified the latest TIEA with Monaco but all such pacts will help only when India starts receiving vital information like the one being exposed by the ICIJ.