India recovered Rs37.7 billion from those holding assets abroad

LAHORE: India had succeeded in recovering an amount to the tune of Indian Rs37.70 billion or over 59 billion Pakistani rupees from its 637 citizens who had benefited from the “Compliance Scheme” and had declared the assets they owned abroad and the undeclared or dirty money that had parked in shell firms registered in low-tax jurisdictions.

The 90-day “compliance scheme” for declarations of offshore Indian assets and accounts had ended on September 30, 2015. The window is now closed and harsh penalties and a jail term have been announced for anyone found having undisclosed/undeclared foreign assets and accounts.

Interestingly, just seven months after the closure of the three-month long “Compliance Scheme,” India has been rocked by the Panama Leaks. It is imperative to note that the April 2013 “Offshore Leaks,” yet another collaborative project done by the “Indian Express” with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) on offshore investments, had identified and exposed 612 Indians--including tycoon-turned-Senator Vijay Mallaya—and some other top business magnates, who were possessing properties abroad.

The 2013 investigation was based on a cache of 2.5 million secret records about the offshore assets of people from 170 countries and territories. Important global personalities mentioned in the 2013 “Offshore Leaks” had included Imee Marcos (daughter of the former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos),  the family of Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, former Georgian head of state Bidzina Ivanishvili, Olga Shuvalov (the wife of former Russian First Vice Premier Igor Shuvalov) and Kazi Zafarullah (a relative of Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina) etc.