Business
Reliance Industries tells staff its clean on black money
Mumbai, Feb 9
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.