Indians set up entities in tax havens long before the government and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) allowed resident individuals to take money out of the country, claims The Indian Express as it revealed the sixth set of names in the Panama Papers case.
Undeterred by the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA) which was in place at the time, “many Indians preferred British Virgin Islands and the Bahamas as an ideal destination for incorporating companies in the 1990s and early 2000s.”
In the more than 37,000 India-related files that Mossack Fonseca documents threw up, there were at least 20 individuals who had set up offshore entities before the RBI announced a new Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) in February 2004.The Indian Express Report
The fresh list contains names of metal scrap dealers to NRIs in the United States and Dubai.
Also on the list is Ajay Devgn who reportedly bought over the entire shareholding of a British Virgin Islands (BVI) company Marylebone Entertainment Limited in 2013, claiming it was done to acquire and exploit overseas rights of Hindi films.
Mossack Fonseca & Co (BVI) Ltd was the registered agent of Marylebone Entertainment Ltd at the time of incorporation. The original shareholder of the company, registered in the BVI on October 29, 2013, was Hassan N Sayani, an individual based in London. Sayani was issued 1,000 shares on October 31, 2013. Ajay Devgan bought over the entire shareholding from Sayani the same day. When contacted, Ajay Devgan told The Indian Express, “This company was set up with RBI guidelines for overseas direct investment route. Proper disclosures have been made by my family in the tax returns as required by law.”The Indian Express Report
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