SC moved for black money return
April 22, 2009: The Times of India
Chidambaram has so far only allegedly communicated to the leader of opposition on this matter. But it does not exuse total apathy in the matter of seizing funds and prosecuting and punishing the guilty.
New Delhi: The heated political debate over recovery of money siphoned out of India and allegedly stashed in foreign banks reached the Supreme Court on Tuesday with eminent lawyer and former law minister Ram Jethmalani, along with prominent personalities, filing a PIL seeking urgent remedial measures to bring back the black money estimated at Rs 70 lakh crore.
Jethmalani, joined by five others including K P S Gill and Subhash Kashyap, through senior advocate Anil Devan told a bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justices P Sathasivam and J M Panchal that both US and Germany have already initiated steps to recover the black money in foreign banks and India should follow suit without any loss of time.
The PIL, being not part of Tuesday’s list of business before the Supreme Court, was mentioned but the bench said it needed to go through it. It then posted it for preliminary hearing on Wednesday.
Referring to a recent article in a magazine, the petitioners said it was estimated that between the years 2002 and 2006, ‘‘nearly Rs 70 lakh crore, have been siphoned off from this country and stashed away in foreign banks’’.
‘‘Finance minister P Chidambaram has publicly acknowledged that he is in the know of all these facts and as far as petitioners know, the only action so far is a communication alleged to have been made by the minister to the leader of opposition. The LoP has not confirmed this claim so far.
“In any event such communication does not excuse total apathy in the matter of seizing these funds and prosecuting and punishing the guilty persons,’’ the PIL stated. Seeking a directive from the SC to the Centre, Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), Enforcement Directorate and Central Board of Direct Taxes to get back, what they referred to as, ‘‘stolen property’’, the petitioners said the colossal failure to take action on this issue was due to the fact that ‘‘influential politicians in most of the political parties are involved in the offences in question’’.
Alleging that huge funds from India handled by operatives of Swiss Bank — UBS — had been detected by ED, the petitioners said, ‘‘It is shocking to know that in spite of the nefarious activities in helping Indian citizens to hide their assets and committing tax fraud, the RBI has been liberal in granting the retail licence by giving them (the bank) a clean chit.’’
Poor corporate ethics source of black money
New Delhi: The siphoning of black money from the country to tax havens is a big drain on the availability of resources in the country and affects its growth prospects. According to one estimate, around Rs 70 lakh crore or $1,400 billion has been stashed out of the country between 2002 and 2006.
One of the main sources of black money is the earnings of corporate houses through overand under-invoicing of their goods, plants & machinery to save taxes. A senior banker says that while implementing a project, some promoters indulge in over-invoicing of plant and machinery to inflate their cost, which is borne by the company, while the directors pocket the difference. Besides, to avoid the payment of excise duty, they under-invoice their goods going out of the factory.
