Govt moots one-time tax amnesty to recover black money stashed abroad

TNN | May 22, 2012, 12.37AM IST

Government’s white paper on black money tabled in Parliament on Monday listed a one-time tax amnesty to recover funds stashed abroad and a gold deposit scheme for locals as possible ways to deal with the menace.

NEW DELHI: The government's white paper on black money, tabled in Parliament on Monday, listed a one-time tax amnesty to recover funds stashed abroad and a gold deposit scheme for locals as possible ways to deal with the menace, while suggesting that individuals get the tax department's go-ahead for all property deals and face undue scrutiny on cash in their possession.


It also called for setting up of independent regulators, ombudsmen for allocation of natural resources, as well as Lokpal and Lokayuktas.

The document has been prepared in response to the clamour for crackdown on corruption and unaccounted wealth, and is supposed to help the government counter the perception of inaction that has bruised it politically. However, in its anxiety to appear tough, the government tilted towards prescriptions which can set the clock back on tax reforms and result in harassment of honest taxpayers. 

Report Uncovers True Scope of India’s ’Black Money’

By Chandrahas Choudhury May 24, 2012

It would appear from India's unnaturally low taxpayer base, widespread anecdotal evidence oftax evasion, and lack of procedural clarity and prosecutorial energy on many aspects of tax collection that the country's Ministry of Finance, the Department of Revenue, and the Central Board of Direct Taxes are incapable of working cohesively.

Nonetheless, these bodies spoke in one voice last week through a "white paper" on the problem of black money in India that was tabled in Parliament by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who said in a prefatory note:

In the past year the public discourse on the issue of corruption and black money has come in the forefront with the active participation of the civil society and our Parliamentary institutions. Two issues have been highlighted in this debate. First, several estimates have been floated, often without adequate factual basis on the magnitude of black money generated in the country and the unaccounted wealth stashed aboard. Secondly, a perception has been created that the Government’s response to address this issue has been piecemeal and inadequate. This document seeks to dispel some of the views around these two issues and place the various concerns in a perspective.

Is Pranab's white paper on black money an exercise in futility? - Hindustan Times
Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee's white paper on black money is an extensive exercise that, in the end, has delivered little more than a research report. Its biggest expectation has become its weakest link — the lack of a number on the size of the black economy that has turned this paper 

• 
  

soulless. We can bicker about the need for such a paper or whether it could have been tabled not last week but next year.

But there is a bigger question we need to ask in these volatile times of fractured political mandates is on outcomes: will any government, today or tomorrow, have the courage to truly end this disease of black money, eating our country's innards since Independence?

The size of India's black economy will come by year-end, Mukherjee has assured us. But I don't think Mukherjee's estimate is going to be strikingly different from estimates of previous serious studies that have pegged the figure between 15% and 50% of GDP. While absolute estimates may differ among economists, one trend common to all studies is the rise — all studies say the percentage of black economy has increased over the years. According to JNU professor Arun  Kumar, it was 2% of GDP in 1955, 7% in 1970, 18% in 1980 and 40% in 1995. So, back-of-the-envelope extrapolations should put the figure at 55% today, though if you look at the real estate boom that has exploded since 2003, a higher figure would not be out of place.

Will Lokpal Bill ever see the light of day? Wednesday, May 23, 2012

The passage of anti-corruption bill has been further delayed as the government has referred the controversial bill to a select committee of Rajya Sabha. The bill was first introduced in 1942 but lack of political will has stalled it for all these years. Also, the White Paper on black money presented in Lok Sabha gave little information about the ill-gotten wealth stashed in Swiss banks. Is the government serious about wiping out corruption from the system or it is just another ploy to fool the public? Speak Up explores... The law will not be passed before monsoon session The government has referred the Lokpal Bill to a select committee of Rajya Sabha, which has been given time to deliberate on it till the first day of the last week of monsoon session. It is now evident that the law will not be passed before the monsoon session that will get underway in August. Even if it is passed, it will have to go back to Lok Sabha because it is a revised bill. That will postpone the bill till the winter session of Parliament. It is all a hazy picture.As for the White Paper on black money, it actually is a jet black paper. A White Paper is supposed to highlight the pros and cons of the issue and provide options to deal with it. I doubt even the estimate figure of black money stated by the White Paper as provided by Swiss National Bank is up to date. The fact is that no names of bank holders have been disclosed in the paper. The committee seems to recommend one more amnesty scheme, which will hardly have any response.

White paper on black money with grey areas!

Mukesh Butani / May 28, 2012, 00:04 IST

The report has adequately captured most forms of contributory factors resulting in the peril of unaccounted money and more importantly, its growing significance in all walks of life. Though, the list is long, admission to bring reforms in sectors which are vulnerable deserve special mention. It would indeed be a tall order to deal with all simultaneously. The report has highlighted the need for efficient allocation of the country’s natural resources in the form of land, water, spectrum, etc., improvement in transparency for public procurement and the lack of it thereof which has contributed to unaccounted money. It would be interesting to observe how the Apex court deals with the presidential reference on this matter immediately after the summer break in light of its mention in the report! While the confession is welcome in light of recent spate of scandals on allocation of natural resources, at the same time, the report seems to have listed certain forms of business transactions and structure contributing to generation of black money.Firstly, the FM needs to be applauded for his efforts to present an all-encompassing report on black money, its ill effects, and strategies to counter the menace and impact on the economy. The FM did stick to his assurance in the Parliament to present the paper which captures its complex relationship with policy and administrative regime in India. While the paper is merely an outline and detailed reports from the three premier institutions are awaited, what came as a revelation was a bold acknowledgement of inter linkages between corruption and black money. Whereas, corruption is a known fact in public life, it is perhaps the first time the world will view an official acceptance by India.

MAY2012

1 comment

UPA’s white paper on black money a farce

Author:  MR Venkatesh

Despite the massive levels of black money being generated, the Government has not been able to net the big fish in any meaningful manner. Therefore, the people have come to accept that scams have become a way of life in India

The White Paper on Black Money that has been released by the UPA Government is a pathetic exercise in understanding, let alone tackling, the menace of black money. Anyone with a rudimentary understanding of global finance, national taxation and Indian economy would dismiss this document as the first draft of a junior under-secretary rather than a serious document of the Government of India on a subject that has been agitating the collective conscience of the nation for the past few years.

The document innocently assumes that black money is “income on which the taxes imposed by the Government or public authorities have not been paid.” It goes on to add that this definition of black money is in “consonance” with the definition used by the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, which in turn defined black money as “the aggregate of incomes which are taxable but not reported to the tax authorities”, little realising all this is of 1985 vintage. In short, should the 2G Spectrum scamsters pay 30 per cent taxes to the Government from their share of loot, they can claim to have no black money.

New post on DiaNuke.org

OUTVOTED: BY THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE! by gnostikal On behalf of the citizens of this democratic India, I ask you, the Government, to STOP the lies. YOU have gone too far already and there must be a full stop to YOUR blatant lying. We simply must choose NOT to trust YOU because - WE, the people, paid for the BEST defense fighter aircrafts and yet they fail every other day in routine peacetime flights. YOU say "Pilot Error," or add, "Poor maintenance, no spares." WE pay for subsidizing the cost of grains to feed the poor as the poor die and the grains rot in your godowns. YOU say, "Corruption and Leakage in PDS." WE pay for scientists to develop nuclear bombs so WE will be secure but WE are immediately attacked in Kargil and have a costly war. YOU say, "Kargil was Human Intelligence Failure." WE pay for maintenance of infrastructure and travel yet WE have daily train accidents. YOU say, "Driver Error” or “Bad Weather." WE pay for national pride while hosting international events but instead become the laughing stock of the world at the Commonwealth Games. YOU say, "Hmmm, the guilty will be punished." Have YOU - collectively or individually - owned up and taken responsibility for ANY of YOUR actions? Have any of YOU ACTUALLY expressed remorse and resigned? YOUR sacrificial goats are willing to graze in political wilderness or even Tihar jail because YOU bring them back out as heroes, who only return to loot with vengeance. Oh, WE see through YOU and your shamelessness. YOU even took OUR airwaves, pocketing immense wealth by selling them to your cronies. Coal, you said? That's done. Or did you say  Land? Done. Housing? Done. Education? Done. Medicine? Done. Liquor? Done. Rivers? Done. Plants? Done. Forests? Done. (To death) Cobblers? Done. Coffins? Done. Hell, even TOILETS! Check this on Wikipedia: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_scandals_in_India YOU have DONE the most harm EVER IMAGINABLE, and you are still not satisfied. YOU wish to POISON the country and its environment for all future generations to come. WE, the people, are answerable to our children. We will have to answer to our daughters and sons when they ask us, "Dad, Mom, were you sleeping when all this was being done?" YOU choose to make money for your cronies. WE CHOOSE to reject you and eject you. Our forefathers got our independence from the foreigners. You are not only pushing us into danger, YOU are leading us into Energy Slavery, where we beg for technology, aid, uranium from your foreign cronies. And you can't see the Sun shining? No, you can't see and you can't smell the coffee either.

INDIAN DREAMS Vs REALITY: INDIAN POLITICAL REALITIES

INDIAN DREAMS Vs REALITY: INDIAN POLITICAL REALITIES: With no reforms on administrative, judicial, electoral as well as economic front in sight and no will to have an effective Lok Pal in the ...

ON PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

The polity in India has degenerated to such an extent that it can say anything and every thing even about the head of the state i.e. 'The President of India'. The other day we had the news in all television and print media that "Pranab Mukerjee is too capable to be the President and has qualities of becoming Prime Minister". These words from a very senior and respected politician of the country  brings about the status of the president in the eyes of politicians.What are the desirable qualifications to being the president are for every Indian to understand.On the other hand having a president of their own choice and the political effort going into this does not justify this belief that president is only a titular head.Those great souls like Dr Rajendra Prasad and S. Radhakrishnan must be stirring and regretting the fact that they occupied this office once upon a time.

The most horrendous fact is that  this nationalistic class of politicians did not bat a single eyelid for the comments on this highest office in the country  particularly when they are so touchy and united when somebody calls a spade a spade by referring to some of their brethren as thieves, criminals and murderers.To a normal Indian it appears that politicians firmly believe that since they elect the president and make laws they are above both of them. Surprisingly when Anna Hazare extends the same logic to citizenry being superior to politicians for it elects them to power they protest vehemently.
What ever the polity may say they have reduced the office of the president to the level of a political post. Such canvassing and pleading for self has never been witnessed in the history of India as is being done by one of the candidates by meeting various parties, chief ministers and any one who controls a few votes amongst the electoral roll of presidential election. Such is the irony of Indian rulers.

INDIA CRYING : NATIONAL SHAME

                                                                     17th May, 2012

Heard On The Street:Hats off to our democracy:

Freedom of speech, thought and media is the very essence of Indian Constitution and Democracy.
We allow all such freedom for all that is said in praise of Indian Polity, after all we are the rulers. Historically and traditionally also, all kings used to have court jesters and poets to do this job.

An officer getting favours in cash and kind for doing a job is graft and corruption whereas for a politician it becomes a reward for his service to the citizenry.

A commoner wanting to get some reimbursement for doing or not doing an action is blackmail. A politician demanding a ministerial berth, portfolio of his choice ( considerations are known to one and all of this country ) or big fat economic package  for extending support to matters of national interest is POLITICS and is merrily played by one and all of the Indian polity.