Panama Papers: ‘I am going to be very strict’, says Arun Jaitley

Rejecting criticism that BJP government has not pursued its pre-poll promise of going after black money, the Finance Minister said, "The people who are angry with me are so, just because I am going very strict."

Jaitley said that while the Congress-led government did nothing on accounts revealed in the Liechtenstein list, the BJP government has investigated, assessed and undertaken criminal proceedings against one and all the accused.

"Taxes are being collected and criminal proceedings going on," he said, adding that 500-525 people out of the 628 HSBC accounts have been traced and assessment orders passed.

"Criminal cases have been filed against around 150 persons," he said.

Out of the third list of accounts revealed by International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, assessments are being done and 52 prosecutions have been filed till now.

On domestic black money, Jaitley said people are protesting because he has made PAN card mandatory for any spending of more than Rs 2 lakh. "Due to this black money is contracting."

He added: "Now just imagine that if all the black economy turns into white and people start paying taxes then it will help government in betterment...such as education, healthcare, infrastructure, rural roads, rural irrigation because govt can't spend all its money on salaries.

"It has to think about development of the country too. So people who are having black money are also compromising with nation's development because the tax component of that money should have been used for the development."