The Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) on black money gave its first report to the court on Wednesday and said over-invoicing of power equipment imports was an easy way of generating black money in India.

The sealed cover report submitted to a bench of Justices H L Dattu, Ranjana P Desai and Madan B Lokur identified a number of instances of over-invoicing in power plant machinery and equipment imports. In one such case, an importer had resorted to over-invoicing to the tune of Rs 6,000 crore.

To tackle this fraud on the nation and surreptitious transfer of money abroad, the SIT headed by two former SC judges - Justices M B Shah and Arjit Pasayat - has suggested that all big imports should be scrutinized for over-invoicing.

The SIT is learnt to have suggested that the slab of imports be fixed at Rs 10,000 crore, Rs 9,000 crore and downwards and these cases be assessed afresh for possible over-invoicing under the direct supervision of designated officers known for their competence and integrity.

The bench applauded the efforts of the SIT and said, "We saw the interim report and they (the SIT) are doing their work. Some progress has been made." It sought the next report from the SIT by November 11, giving it more than two months time.

The apex court had set up the SIT, comprising top sleuths from RAW, IB and revenue intelligence, on a PIL by ace criminal lawyer Ram Jethmalani. The court on Wednesday allowed Jethmalani and his counsel Anil Divan to interact with the SIT and give suggestions on bringing back black money stashed abroad by Indians.

The SIT also faulted the UPA government for seeking names of Indian account holders in Liechtenstein Bank under the Double Taxation Avoidance Treaty, which allowed German authorities to give just 30 names despite nearly 1,400 Indians figuring in the list of account holders, sources told TOI.

Jethmalani provided the court with the correspondence he had with German authorities, one of which revealed that Indian government had high-level contacts with German authorities. A letter received by Jethmalani said, "The German side had provided 'hard information' to the Indian side as a result of his letter to the German minister of finance."

The SIT also appeared to agree with Jethmalani that DTAA was not the appropriate route through which India should have sought information on Indians stashing black money in foreign banks.

The SIT said the government needed to take a comprehensive look at such treaties and effect necessary changes to enable Indian agencies to legally seek sharing of data on black money from foreign countries, sources said.

Jethmalani said, "German government had expressed willingness to share the Liechtenstein Bank account holders' names and other data without cost or condition with any requesting country. The government of Indian made no effort whatsoever to secure this information; unfortunately not even the leaders of the opposition (Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley)."

The bench told additional solicitor general Neeraj Kishan Kaul to share with Jethmalani full information obtained from German authorities on Indian account holders. It also asked Kaul to get back to the court with the steps taken by the Union government on amending the treaties with other countries to enable the investigating agencies get effective information about Indians stashing money abroad.

The SIT also felt there was a need to keep close watch on the routes used to transfer black money generated in India to foreign countries, be it hawala or other means. "Tracking locally generated black money and stopping their transfer outside is also an important component of fighting the menace of black money," SIT sources said.

Source:- timesofindia.indiatimes.com