In his reaction to The Indian Express story of some Indians having unaccounted wealth in tax havens, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday said those who did not take advantage of the compliance window last year to declare illegal assets abroad will find such adventurism extremely costly.


The minister said global initiatives to deal with the menace of unaccounted wealth abroad will be in place by 2017, and then it would become extremely difficult for individuals to hide assets.


With G20 initiatives, FATCA and bilateral transactions in place with effect from 2017, the world is going to be a far more transparent institution and therefore, this kind of an adventurism will prove to be extremely costly for those who have indulged in it, Jaitley said while addressing the annual session of industry body CII.


His statement comes on a day when The Indian Express, based on leaked documents of Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca, reported that over 500 Indians including some well known names figure in the list of persons having association with firms in tax havens.