The tail end of Black Money tale

How much is it? ‘Rs.14,000 Crores’; that’s all? But many ‘experts’ were estimating the money stashed at Swiss bank at around Rs.1,00,000 Cr. Some of them have estimated it to be Rs.25,00,000 Cr. I saw a document released a year before about Black Money (BM) and there the expert researchers ‘guesstimated’ an amount of Rs.70,00,000 Crores. Now we are hearing from the Horse’s mouth (the Swiss Bank) that the amount of money deposited by Indians at Swiss Bank is a mere Rs.14,000 Crores!

What can we make out of this?

  1. Our experts are wrong in their estimates; they would have done this to get a political mileage, publicity or short term visibility. Maybe the experts would have thought that Black money will never come back; so we can mention an amount which can draw the attention of people of India. OR
  2. The Government is talking about bringing back the black money for the last 2 years. If a thief tells you in advance that he will rob your home, will you keep the valuables at home? Similarly, when the Government is “TomToming” that they will catch the people who have kept black money abroad; will they not withdraw and find an alternative place to safe keep the money? OR
  3. The Swiss Bank may be trying to eyewash. They are giving a partial list so that government will not ask for more information about ‘real depositors’

I will tell you, you can mark these sentences; this is how this black money saga will unfold

  • A day will come when the Government of India (GOI) releases the list of people who have deposits to the tune of Rs.14000 Crores at Swiss Bank
  • The list will not have names of any politicians or any famous businessmen.
  • The list will contain the name of people whom we would not have heard of in the past.
  • Most of the deposit holders will give a paper statement that ‘they are NRI’s and the money kept there is not routed from India OR they will say that the money kept there are all tax paid amount.

Track record – I am saying this based on track record of similar incidents. When Mr. Veerappan was killing elephants and selling ivory; cutting and selling sandalwood; people said that he was backed by politicians and celebrities. You all know what happened to Veerappan’s story at the end.

Secondly, In case of Stamp Paper scam people were talking that many politicians were involved with Abdul Karim thelgi. But what happened at the end? No names of politicians came forward as Scam Stars!

Mostly, in case of Black money a similar story will unfold.

SIT’s Job: If the policymakers are very serious about bringing back black money, punishing the guilty, then they have to track the transactions since 1970s; secondly, they have to simultaneously gather information from all other tax havens.

As such for all of us ‘the story of black money’ is a mystery. Is it there? How much is it? No one is sure; but everyone is sure that there is black money. If a comprehensive approach is not adopted, it will be a white colored, modern version (avathar) of ‘Indian treasure hunt’ based on Swami Shobhan Sarkar’s dream which took place at Uttar Pradesh during Oct, 2013.

 

 

 

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About B E Kumar Prasad

B E Kumar Prasad
He is a Practicing Chartered Accountant in Bengaluru, India. He has 28+ years of experience in income tax, business setup, and NRI matters. He is also an Insolvency Professional, Registered Valuer (F&SA) and Social Auditor.Prasad welcomes your comments and questions. Please email him at simplifiedlaws20@gmail.com

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Vishwanath HV
2025 years ago

Oh, how I regret not holding a few hundred crores in a Swiss bank 🙁

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