New Delhi: Kendrapara MP Baijayant Panda (BJD) Friday asked Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the Lok Sabha if the Centre is considering any plan to introduce biometric system to identify the people behind the shell firms that are evading taxes and engaged in suspicious financial transactions.
Speaking during the Question Hour, Panda said, “The Finance Minister has stated that there is no need to change the Companies Act to target the shell companies. Several of these companies could be de-recongnised but the people behind these shell companies are not in target. They start new companies and do new transactions. These firms are used to transfer benami assets.”
“In a different sphere you have decided to use Aadhaar linkage for the purpose of targeting large number of fake cards and PAN cards through the use of biometrics. I want to know if the government has plans to use the same biometric technology to weed out the people behind these shell companies which are actually not well defined in the Companies Act,” Panda said.
Replying to Panda, Jaitley said, “I take this suggestion into consideration. This is a very useful suggestion.” However he failed to give any timeline while indirectly implying that there is a plan to use Aadhaar to target the people behind shell
companies.
BHARAT NET SCHEME
Minister of State for Communication Manoj Sinha Friday claimed in the Rajya Sabha that 569 panchayats in Orissa have access to broadband under the Bharat Net scheme.
‘‘In Orissa, 3,388 Gram Panchayats were provided connectivity by laying 8,443-km optical fibre cable in phase-I of Bharat Net. By August 6, a total of 3,108 panchayats have been covered by laying 7,970-km OFC and broadband has been provided in 569 GPs,” Sinha said.
BSNL has been setting up public Wi-Fi hotspots in 25,985 telephone exchanges of BSNL in rural areas, including 811 in Orissa. Further, Common Service Centre-Special Purpose Vehicle (CSC-SPV), under the Ministry of Electronics & IT, is setting up “Wi-Fi Choupals” in 5,089 GPs in the country and 111 in Orissa, he added.
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