Reliance Industries tells staff its clean on black money
Mumbai, Feb 9 (IANS) The employees of Reliance Industries were Monday told that neither the company they worked for nor their chairman Mukesh Ambani have any illegal foreign account account or ill-gotten money stashed away abroad as suggested in some media reports.
"The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) has released unsubstantiated stolen information, which is already available with authorities in India. The story published in today's newspaper based on this information does not reflect true facts," a RIL employee said, referring to the communication.
"RIL, with over Rs.300,000 crore of export turnover, has branches and associate companies in over 100 countries. These entities have bank accounts for which all required approvals are in place. The fact that some of these accounts are in HSBC Geneva does not make them illegal."
The missive also comes in the wake of a statement made by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley earlier in the day in which he said the government had assessed 350 foreign accounts for tax-evasion and initiated proceedings against 60 as part of its crackdown on black money.
Jaitley, however, did not name any company or individual.
"Neither RIL, nor its subsidiaries/affiliates, or Mukesh Ambani, had or have any illegal accounts anywhere in the world. In this matter, RIL will continue to cooperate with the authorities," the company said in the e-mail to its employees.
Reacting to a media report that 1,195 Indians were in the list of clients who held accounts in HSBC bank's Geneva branch from 2006-2007, the finance minister said: "The details that have come out today (Monday) are the ones we already have."
He said the question was not about names but evidences that the government needed to prosecute. "Some new names have been revealed whose veracity would be checked by authorities," he said, adding, the assessment of the balance accounts will get completed by March 31.
--Indo-Asia News Service
ap/vd