20 businessmen under I-T scanner

HYDERABAD: Over 20 high profile businessmen and politicians from Andhra Pradesh have come under the scanner of the Income Tax (I-T) department for investments made in accounts and companies in overseas tax havens. These include the promoters of a leading infrastructure giant from the state, an MP and industrialist from Telangana, the former promoter of a troubled infrastructure firm that has since been taken over by a Mumbai-based company, the promoters of a local pharma company that has been in the news for links with the Jagan assets case as well as the brother of a leading infrastructure baron. The Hyderabad Income Tax Directorate has launched a fast-track probe into the matter, with the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the apex body of the I-T department in India, regularly monitoring the investigations by the field units and directly reporting to the Union finance minister on a regular basis, said sources familiar with the development. Highly reliable sources in the I-T department told STOI that authorities in well-known tax havens like Cook Islands, the British Virgin Islands (BVI), Singapore, Samoa, Lubuan (Malaysia) and Taiwan have been approached by the Indian tax authorities to provide further details of covert business deals and ownership of secret offshore bank accounts. Incidentally, Portcullis TrustNet Group in the British Virgin Islands is believed to be one of the biggest facilitators for such dubious offshore investments. However, it is learnt that the I-T authorities are facing hurdles in getting information from these tax havens or offshore hideaways despite India having inked Tax Information Exchange Agreements (TIEAs) with many of them in order to check tax evasion and money laundering. When contacted the I-T department officials refused to divulge any details. The Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) had blown the whistle on these shady deals through its investigative reporting project titled