Revision as of 16:08, 18 December 2014

India is 3rd on black money list $440billion flows out in 10 years

The Times of India

WASHINGTON, December 16, 2014

As India continues its pursuit of suspected black money stashed abroad, an international think-tank has ranked the country third globally with an estimated $94.76 billion (nearly Rs 6 lakh crore) illicit wealth outflows in 2012.

As a result, the cumulative illicit money moving out of the country over a ten-year period from 2003 to 2012 has risen to $439.59 billion (Rs 28 lakh crore), as per the latest estimates released by the Global Financial Integrity (GFI).

Russia is on the top with $122.86 billion, followed by China at the second position ($249.57 billion) in terms of the quantum of black money moving out of a country for 2012- the latest year for which these estimates have been made.

The Washington-based research and advocacy group further said that the illicit fund outflows from India accounts for nearly 10 per cent of a record $991.2 billion worth illegal capital that moved out of all developing and emerging nations in 2012 to facilitate "crime, corruption, and tax evasion".

As per GFI's 2014 Annual Global Update on Illicit Financial Flows report, that the cumulative illicit outflows from developing economies for ten years between 2003 and 2012 stands at $6.6 trillion.

This includes $439.59 billion worth illicit money that has moved out of India in these ten years, putting the country at fourth position in overall ranking for a decade, after China ($1.25 trillion), Russia (973.86 billion) and Mexico ($514.26 billion). In these ten years, an average of $43.96 billion of black money is being sent out of India every year, GFI said.

The estimate of this huge illegal money flow follows a Supreme Court-constituted Special Investigation Team (SIT) tracing Rs 4,479 crore in the accounts of Indians figuring in a list of account holders of HSBC's Geneva branch.

Besides, the SIT has also disclosed tracing unaccounted wealth worth Rs 14,958 crore within India, which are now being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate and the Income Tax Department.

Supreme Court on Black money

December 3, 2014, PTI

The Times of India

In the black money case, the Supreme Court has asked Centre to complete the probe by 31st March, 2015. A Bench headed by chief justice H L Dattu also asked the apex court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the cases of black money to consider the plea for furnishing certain information and correspondences received by it to the petitioners without "blackening" the contents.

Eminent jurist Ram Jethmalani, who is one of the petitioners in the matter, submitted that the then Solicitor General in the previous UPA government Mohan Parasaran, had supplied some letters and documents after masking certain portions.

The bench, also comprising Justices M B Lokur and A K Sikri, accepted another plea of Jethmalani's counsel Anil Divan that the SIT headed by Justice M B Shah, should consider the plea for providing him the copies of the reports of its probe into the black money cases.

Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi responded to the pleas saying that he would not say "no" for supplying the copies of the reports submitted by the SIT and also assured that the issue of time bar would not arise in the tax probe for suspected black money.

"We are aware of it and there would not be any problem as now the prosecution for tax evasion can be initiated upto 16 years of commission of the offence," he said.

The issue of black money has been matter of a serious political debate in India, including during the last general elections. While the new government has said it is committed to tackle this menace, there are no official figures for the overall size of illicit wealth stashed by Indians within the country or abroad.