Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which is looking into the Panama Papers leaks among other agencies, said on Friday that no conclusion can be drawn yet about the legality of the offshore entities of Indians in Panama.
RBI Deputy Governor, SS Mundra, however, said that some “unverified assumptions” from the government indicate that entities of most of the Indians associated with the leaks were opened in Panama under RBI’s Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) as per norms.
It will be premature to arrive at any conclusion on the Panama Papers issue at this stage. At this moment, it will be wrong to think that all entities of Indians opened in Panama are illegal or none of these entities is not illegal. The team will gather documents and investigate how black money was sent out of the country, if it is so, to set up entities in Panama.SS Mundra, RBI Deputy Governor
He said the probe into the Panama Paper leaks concerning Indian nationals has just begun.
Released by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) early this month, the Panama Papers contained names of nearly 500 Indians, including celebrities and industrialists, who allegedly had set up offshore entities in various tax havens.
The probe group comprises officials from RBI, IT Department, Financial Intelligence Unit and Foreign Tax and Tax Research. It has been set up to determine the legality of the transactions following the leaked documents of Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca.
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