What do Bollywood superstars Amitabh Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, DLF owner K P Singh and Gautam Adani’s elder brother Vinod Adani have in common?
According to a report in The Indian Express on Monday, these names, among 500 others, figure on a Panama law firm's list of Indians who have setup offshore companies in tax havens through the firm's services.
A huge data leak at Panamanian firm Mossack Fonsecahas revealed that it hid billions of dollars in assets of global politicians, sports stars and entertainers.
The files, called the "Panama Papers" and comprising over 11 million documents from the firm, have revealed names which will shock many.
The problems for Mossack Fonseca, a hitherto unheard of name for the vast majority of Indians and people the world over, began when 2.6 terabyte worth of its confidential data was leak to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).
According to the ICIJ, the consortium, together with the German newspaperSuddeutsche Zeitungand more than 100 other media partners, conducted the investigation into the papers over a period of a year.
The conclusion: Information on more than 214,000 offshore companies connected to people in more than 200 countries and territories unearthed.
But what exactly does being an Indian on the list entail?
The Indian Express, a partner in the investigation called "Project Prometheus", explains: "Some of the Indians floated offshore entities at a time when laws did not allow them to do so; some have taken a technically convenient view that companies acquired is not the same as companies incorporated; some have bunched their annual quota of remittances to subscribe to shares in an offshore entity acquired at an earlier date. Still, some others have received income earned abroad and deposited it in the entity to avoid tax. Some have opened a bank account to keep payoffs in government contracts, or held “proceeds of crime” or property bought with money made illegally in Trusts/ Foundations."
The report suggests that many of the Indians, featured in this Panama Leaksand who set up these offshore entities prior to 2013, are likely in violation of the Reserve Bank of India's Liberalised Remittance Scheme — introduced in February 2004.Read More.
