CHENNAI / NEW DELHI: A member of the well-known Mammen family, which owns the city-based tyre manufacturer MRF, was named in the black money list handed over by Germany to India in 2009, according to Tehelka magazine.
The magazine’s website on Wednesday revealed that the Mammen family member was one of the 16 names in the list that Tehelka had acquired, out of a total of 18 names handed over to India by Germany.
Last week, the magazine had published a list of names of 15 individuals and trusts who had allegedly stashed away black money in the LGT Bank in Liechtenstein.
Tyre major MRF, a company owned by the Mammens, was founded by K M Mammen Mappillai. The enterprise began as a toy balloon manufacturing firm in 1946 and soon emerged as a leading maker of tread rubber.
The report said repeated attempts to contact Arun Mammen, managing director of MRF, did not yield a response from him.
Quoting highly placed sources, the report said that investigation into the alleged money-parking by these individuals and trusts by the Central Board of Direct Taxes, or the CBDT, was close to completion. It also said that the board would soon prosecute them under the relevant provisions of the Income Tax Act.
Meanwhile, ignoring the Supreme Court’s rebukes, the Centre did not divulge in its additional affidavit on a PIL the names of Indians who have stashed their money in tax havens abroad.
Instead, it went on to detail various measures being taken in a bid to retrieve such money.
Among the steps is counting black money parked in tax havens abroad as taxable income under the Direct Taxes Code Bill. The Centre said it had even completed negotiations for signing the Tax Information Exchange Agreement with 10 countries, where the money is believed to have been stashed.
The ten countries are — Bahamas, Bermuda, British Virgin Island, Isle of Man, Cayman Island, British Island of Jersey, Monaco, St Kitts and Nevis, Argentina and Marshall Island.
The Government had earlier claimed that it had identified 26 citizens, who had parked their ill-gotten wealth abroad as revealed by the German government in Liechtenstein Bank there, but avoided making the names public.
Others on Tehelka list :
Manoj Dhupelia
Rupal Dhupelia
Mohan Dhupelia
Hasmukh Gandhi
Chintan Gandhi
Dilip Mehta
Arun Mehta
Arun Kochar
Gunwanti Mehta
Rajnikant Mehta
Prabodh Mehta
Ashok Jaipuria
Raj Foundation
Urvashi Foundation
Ambrunova Trust
