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None from NE in Govt-submitted list

By SANJOY RAY

GUWAHATI, Oct 31 � Setting at rest all speculations, the Income Tax Department today confirmed that no �black money� has been stashed in any foreign bank by any resident of Assam.

This is for the first time that the Income Tax Department has spoken in the context of scaling speculations that a former Member of Parliament from Assam is among those who have black money deposited in foreign banks.

In fact, no politician, bureaucrat or businessman from the North East feature in the list of 627 individuals whose names have been submitted to the Supreme Court by the Union Government and subsequently to the Special Investigation Team (SIT), claimed a top Income Tax Department official while talking to The Assam Tribune from New Delhi.

�I am saying so after examining all the related dossiers in this regard,� he asserted.

Senior Supreme Court lawyer Ram Jetmalani was the first to trigger speculations when he commented that a former Member of Parliament from Assam is among those with huge amount of unaccounted money in foreign bank accounts.

Top bosses of the Income Tax Department, including those from the North East Circle of the IT Department, met at North Block (New Delhi) today to discuss a range of

issues, including the issue of black or untaxed money of Indian nationals in foreign banks, IT Department sources said.

�There are a few cases under investigation in North East, but none of the magnitude of those named in the list of 627 foreign bank account holders,� a top boss of the Income Tax Department said.

He said that most of the black money holders are residents of Maharashtra and Delhi and the Union Finance Minister is himself monitoring the issue very closely.

�Of course, tax evasion is high in Guwahati and other parts of the North East, like in any other States in the country. We have in the recent past come across a number of tax evasion cases and acted upon it,� the senior official said.

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