We Indians share a common joke when we visit restaurants – “Bill nahin chukaya toh bartan dhone padenge.” Meaning – If you don’t pay for the hotel charges you will need to compensate by washing utensils. Now what is the link between Income-tax and Hotel. Small country Saudi Arabia has taught the world. Rather than ‘House-arrest’ they have coined a new term “Hotel-arrest”. Let’s delve upon it further in coming paragraphs.
On Crown prince Mohammed bin Salman orders more than 200 members of Saudi Arabia’s elite, including 11 princes, have been detained at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Riyadh.
Database – The Saudi government is also putting up hundreds of experts to process the cases ‘round the clock’. There are reportedly 1,900 Saudi bank accounts totaling $US800 billion frozen in the kingdom. Saudi officials painstakingly corroborated evidence against these persons so that there are no escape routes.
Their sin – “guests” stand accused of abuse of power, corruption, and money laundering.
Peace Flag – Pay your taxes and seek freedom.
Tax evasion amount involved – On November 17th, the Financial Times reported that the Crown Prince was willing to release the over 200 detained individuals if they handed over 70% of their wealth to the Treasury. That adds up to a cool USD 560 billion. This is about 2x the size of India’s total government expenditure every year that is outlined in the annual budget.
Outcome – A senior Saudi Prince, Miteb bin Abdullah, was released in Riyadh just two days ago after more than three weeks in detention after agreeing to an “acceptable settlement” with authorities of more than $1 billion.
INDIAN CONTEXT
Liechtenstein, British Virgin Islands, HSBC Geneva, Panama Papers and Appleby – the leaks and (yet to be convicted) black money hoarders are endless too. No guesses why these people still remain scot free roaming around without any fear. Because our legal system is such that cases take donkey years to be decided and many a times, ‘it is justice delayed is justice denied’.
After a lull of two years, Income-tax department is now active to move against many named in the list of secret Swiss accounts with HSBC Geneva. The move is backed by a recent Bengaluru tribunal ruling and ‘targets’ given by CBDT.
NPowersU Expert Opinion
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