While the list of Indian defaulters along with their names are in the possession of some of the Indian media houses, including The Indian Express, there seems to be no clarity on part of the government’s willingness to step in and act against these offenders.
It may be recalled that while the Bachchan family’s name featured in the Panama papers, in addition to total lack of response, the BJP government had also promoted Bachchan senior as the brand ambassador of Gujart state.
Anil Ambani who had earlier declared insolvency in front of a UK court has been named in the Pandora papers that claim he along with his representatives own 18 offshore companies. It was cited in the press that a total of seven companies from this list had borrowed and invested to the tune of USD 1.3 billion.
His disposition before the UK court in the previous year was related to his defaulting on repayment of installments towards loans that were sanctioned by Chinese state-controlled banks. The data furnished by Ambani in this case disclosed that his firms’ total debts stood at INR 5,281 crores.
As per reports that appeared in The Indian Express, Ambani’s offshore companies were located in Jersey, British Virgin Islands (BVI) and Cyprus. In addition, it also mentioned that several big names that feature in the cream of Indian industrialist circles also own a host of such offshore corporate entities.
Ambani’s failing to meet the payment norms of the Chinese creditors has also raised a big question mark on how the Indian government maintains a volte face on big time defaulters.
“Our enforcement agencies seem to be doing too little, too late, when it comes to action against defaulters.”
Prabhakar Narkar
President, @Janata Dal (secular)
Mumbai
“What is this consortium (ICIJ) and what does it do? Is this an authorized entity and how do we know that the information they get is authentic? All the information that you have is totally untrue and false.”
Archana Sadanand
Media Advisor to Aishwarya Rai
