The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has offered no tax amnesty scheme to Indian account-holders of HSBC, Switzerland, said the Central government.

Replying in the negative to a written query if the CBDT, the apex direct taxes body, had offered any "amnesty scheme" to wealthy citizens who had evaded taxes by hiding funds in accounts of Swiss unit of HSBC, Minister of State for Finance SS Palanimanickam had made it clear in the Lok Sabha last week.

The minister also made it clear that there was no plan to give amnesty to tackle the issue of black money.

Palanimanickam said that there is "no verifiable information" as to estimate black money brought back to the country till date.

Also, there is no verifiable information to estimate money deposited in foreign accounts by Indian, "which is exclusive of their legitimate foreign deposits", the minister said, and replying to another query, he added that Swiss National Bank, the liability of Swiss banks towards Indians as on December 31, 2011, was $2.245 billion.

It may be noted that a-year-and-a-half ago, India had received a list of 700 Indians from the French government about their bank accounts in HSBC, Geneva.

The government had set up a committee under the CBDT Chairman to examine ways to strengthen laws to curb the generation of black money in the country, its illegal transfer abroad and its recovery. The panel submitted its report to the government in March 2012.