India’s fight against black money needed more power
as the quantum of domestic black money is similar to what is stashed abroad.
The government on Wednesday said the amount of
domestic black money was no less than that kept abroad. A global report pegged
illicit financial outflows from India between 2003 and 2012 at $439 billion.
While there is no official estimate of unaccounted
money that Indians have stashed in other countries, taking a study by Global
Financial Integrity, a Washington DC-based research and advisory organisation,
as the benchmark, black money in
circulation in the Indian economy could be around $439 billion of outflows
between 2003 and 2012.
The study had said total illicit financial outflows
from India stood at $94.8 billion in 2012 alone, which is five per cent of
India's economic size at $1.85 trillion that year.
The study, however, estimated illicit financial
outflows from only two sources: a deliberate trade misinvoicing, and leakages
in the balance of payments (known as illicit hot money narrow outflows).
The government has already appointed a Special
Investigation Team (SIT) to probe a list of over 600 people with money in HSBC,
Geneva, among other cases. In its second
report given to the Supreme Court, the SIT revealed the persons on the HSBC
list held Rs 4,479 crore in Swiss banks.
The government is negotiating tax treaties with
countries such as Mauritius and Cyprus, countries through which investors are
understood to be re-routing money to invest in India.
On the other hand, the Swiss government has repeatedly
refused to cooperate with India on the HSBC list, which it says is based on
data stolen by a French employee.
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