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Names of black money account holders will embarrass Congress, says Finance Minister Arun Jaitley

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The BJP and the Congress continue to exchange barbs on the issue of black money. Soon after the finance minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday asked the Congress to be ready for embarrassment when names of those stashing black money in foreign banks are revealed in the Supreme Court, the Congress challenged him to make public the names as soon as possible.

Jaitely in an interview to a private TV channel said that Switzerland has agreed to share information about at least 500 Indians who held accounts at HSBC in that country as evidence against them has already been collected by the Indian tax officials and communicated to the authorities there. He also blamed the media for misreporting that the government has backtracked from revealing the names. "The government never said that it will not reveal the names of Indians who have undeclared income parked in foreign bank accounts," Jaitley said, noting that the names will be out as soon as the culprits are taken to court.

"Once we inform the court, the names will automatically come out in public," Jaitley said. Claiming that the process will end soon, he said "It's the Congress which needs to be worried, not the BJP." Without clarifying if the list may have some top Congress leaders or the party will be embarrassed for questioning the BJP for not revealing the names, he said, "The Congress will be embarrassed by the names when we reveal them in court." Though, he didn't reveal names, insiders said names of at least two former ministers and relative of a high-profile political family figure in the list.

Jaitley stressed that the tax treaties that compel confidentiality at the stage of investigation were signed by the Congress government in 1995. Noted lawyer and former union law minister Ram Jethmalani, who filed the case in the Supreme Court in 2009 for recovery of black money from abroad, had also blamed the then Congress-led UPA government for causing hindrance in the recovery of black money by signing such treaties.

Meanwhile, the Congress spokesman Salman Soz said the BJP was using the issue of black money as a tool to befool public. He said instead of worrying about embarrassing political opponents, Jaitley should fulfil the promise of transparently recovering black money. "Even Indian deserves Rs 15-20 lakh as promised by Modi. With the enormous sums of money spent by BJP in recent elections, even a child knows that the B in BJP stands for black money," he alleged.

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