Why we may not get names of foreign account holders?

Though Finance Minister Arun Jaitley says that there is nobody that the government wants to protect, it would take quite some time for the names to come into the public domain.

Here are the reasons why:
* The names cannot be discloses as under the Constitution's article 32 allows the account holders to move the apex court for upholding fundamental rights of secrecy.

* An element of confidentiality is crucial when it comes to foreign bank accounts. All of those on the list may not have illegal money. But revealing all the names would mean interfering with their privacy and hence jeopardizing the treaty.

* As there is a confidentiality clause in bilateral tax treaties for sharing of information, the government is keen that procedures followed should be such that the reciprocating countries continue to cooperate with India.

* The disclosure to the court would make it impossible in future for the government to sign tax treaties with foreign governments. The Centre will now have to take a call on how it would go about signing such agreements.

* Indian financial institutions face the risk of sanctions by the US under Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act if India does not sign the pact by December 31. The new anti-tax evasion law in the US also has a confidentiality clause.

* A day before the affidavit, leading chamber Assocham had said premature disclosure of names of Indians with allegedly illegal bank accounts abroad will hurt India's battle against black money.