10 days’ notice given to Kaur and her son Raninder Singh.
By Sreejith Vallikunnu
Switzerland authorities revealed on Tuesday that India has sought its assistance in the probe related to Congress leader and former Union minister Preneet Kaur’s and her son Raninder Singh’s alleged bank accounts.
According to The New Indian Express report, The Federal Tax Administration (FTA) of Switzerland asked Kaur and Singh to file an appeal within 10 days for “exercise of the right to be heard” as per the Swiss norms for ‘assistance’ in tax matters.
The names of Kaur and her son were published in two separate notifications by the Switzerland government’s federal gazette. Meanwhile, the gazette only disclosed their names, nationality and dates of birth.
Kaur, the wife of former Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh, was the minister of state for external affairs during the years 2009-14 in the UPA government under Manmohan Singh. Raninder Singh, also a Congress politician, had represented Patiala Lok Sabha constituency in the parliament three times, 1999, 2004 and 2009, respectively.
Kaur and son were not available for any immediate response related to the allegations levelled against them. Earlier, Kaur’s name was in a leaked HSBC list. She had denied the allegations by stating that she did not operate an account in any foreign banks.
She had said that even though a statement was recorded by the tax authorities, she was not shown any document that might indicate having a foreign bank account or a trust.
Names of several Indians and other foreign nationals have been disclosed in the gazette in recent months following growing global pressure on Switzerland to crack down on its famed banking secrecy practices amid suspicion on these accounts being used to park illicit wealth, The New Indian Express report added.
Retrieving black money from foreign banks was one of the major poll promises of the current BJP government. But after coming into power, the government is facing severe criticism for not taking any sincere effort to bring back black money to India.