NEW DELHI: A day after the central government submitted a list of black money account holders to the Supreme Court, India pulled out of a multilateral information sharing agreement, CNN IBN reports.
The government move is surprising considering that the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement, signed by 51 countries in Berlin on Wednesday, enables automatic information sharing between the signatory countries.
The agreement also would provide for collecting, exchanging information on tax payers’ overseas assets.
The report adds that an uncertainty over the ability to comply with confidentiality clause of the agreement led to the government move.
Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi Wednesday submitted three sets of documents, containing the list of 627 people having illegal accounts in foreign banks, to the Supreme Court in a sealed cover.
The government also submitted a status report in a sealed cover.
The apex court said only SIT chairman and vice chairman can open the seal and asked the investigating agency to submit the status report of its probe by November-end. The apex court allowed the Centre to put forth its grievances regarding various treaties with foreign countries before the SIT.
The Supreme Court had earlier on Tuesday reprimanded the Centre after the latter released the names of just three account holders on Monday and asked it to release the names of all the people who have stashed away black money in foreign banks. (With inputs from agencies)
