Friday 26 / April / 2024
Kolkata: As a multi-agency probe continues into leaked 'Panama Papers' showing alleged offshore tax haven holdings of Indians, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday said "Congress will not have many reasons to celebrate" when the details come out in this case.
He also asserted that the probe is being done in a "very impartial" way and rejected demands from Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) that he should "recuse" himself from the matter.
"I have not understood their argument," Jaitley said in reply to a question on the opposition demand that he should recuse himself for being "close" to a person named in the leaked documents.
He was talking to reporters at a media interaction organised by state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the Press Club here.
On a question on impartiality on the probe, the union minister said, "It is very impartial, and a multi-agency probe is going on. When the details will come out, Congress will not have many reasons to celebrate."
Congress and AAP have targeted Jaitley on the Panama Papers issue and have demanded a judicial probe into the allegations about some Indians setting up offshore entities in a tax haven and asking him to "recuse" from dealing with the matter, saying a fair probe was otherwise not possible as Jaitley was 'close' to a person named in the leaks.
Meanwhile, refusing to relent on excise duty levy on non-silver jewellery goods, Jaitley on Sunday said a "luxury item" cannot remain out of tax ambit when taxes need to be paid on many essentials.
A large section of jewellers and bullion traders have been on strike for over a month seeking withdrawal of one per cent excise duty on non-silver jewellery items.
They are also opposing mandatory quoting of PAN by customers for transactions of Rs200,000 and above.
"How can a luxury item remain out of tax when essential items like cement, cloth and many others have to pay manufacturing tax. If we do not bring GST on gold, taxation on other items will have to be increased," Jaitley said at a media interaction at the Press Club here.
He said there was no reason why luxury items should be exempted when the country was moving toward Goods and Services Tax.
Jaitley said the Centre has given a benefit that excise would be similar to VAT on gold and has tried to allay fears that 'karigars' would be affected from the new taxation.
The union finance minister in his Budget proposals on February 29 had announced levy of one per cent excise duty on non-silver jewellery.
The government had last month constituted a panel under former Chief Economic Advisor Ashok Lahiri to look into the demands of jewellers and the panel has been asked to submit its report within 60 days.
