AAP on central govt’s black money disclosure scheme :

Narendra Modi government has announced that its black money disclosure amnesty scheme has yielded a disclosure of merely Rs 3770 crore. The Government will get sixty per cent of this money as penalty and tax. This means more than Rs 1100 crore will remain with the tax evaders as legitimate tax paid money.

This is a joke on the people of the country. Mr Narendra Modi had come to power on the promise of bringing black money within 100 days and had also promised rupees 15 lakh in the account of every Indian. Now with disclosure and estimated tax realization announced by the government, it can only deposit only 18 rupees in the account of every Indian.

The then UF government had launched a similar scheme called Voluntary Disclosure of Income Scheme in 1997. This scheme had yielded more that Rs 33000 crore. The Indian economy has seen an eight fold growth in these 18 years. Disclosure of mere Rs 3770 crore only underlines monumental failure of Modi Government on the black money front.  

Some facts

• Estimates suggest India';s black economy accounts for nearly 50% of its GDP. (India’s GDP is Rs.130Lacs croreapprox, then it means black money is about Rs.65Lac croreapprox). PM has previously quoted it to be Rs.80 Lac crore.

• Only 10% is stashed abroad; 90% remains in India.

• There are about 90 significant tax havens across the world.

AAP would like to ask the following eight questions to the BJP-led NDA’s central government :

Question 1) Prime Minister Modi had previously said that Rs 80 lakh crore is the estimated black money. In his tenure of 16 months so far only 0.05% of what was promised in 100 days has been achieved. Will the PM confess that he misled the people of India while seeking votes on false pretext?

Question 2) With Rs 3,770 crore declared black money, recovery/tax estimated to be collected on this Rs 2,262crores, and with 2011 census figures of 121 crore population, a disgraceful figure of Rs.18.68 per citizen is arrived, while Rs 15 lakh was promised? Will PM Modi publicly accept his government’s failure?

Question 3) PM Modi in his Independence day speech claimed that Rs. 6500 Cr has been declared under the compliance window of the new law. He said "so far, Rs. 6,500 crore of undisclosed income have been declared."
Now the figures shared by the Government is Rs.3,770 crore. Will the BJP Government come clean on this? Was the PM Modi, again, quoting wrong figures?

Question 4) Provisions of BLACK MONEY (UNDISCLOSED FOREIGN INCOME AND ASSETS) AND IMPOSITION OF TAX ACT, 2015 are well covered under the existing laws of the land. This act was never designed to tackle the menace of illicit money. It was a PR exercise.We would like to ask PM Modi’s government come clean on this and explain how is this legislation effectively different from the existing set of laws?

Question 5) Statements have been issued by senior bureaucrats of the Government of India that anyone who has not disclosed illicit money and assets kept abroad by the stated deadline, they will face severe consequences. Since most of the money goes out via ';layering';, the true identity of the person controlling an illegitimate account abroad is hidden. If people are not caught then these provisions will be mere paper tigers. We urge the Union Government to speak on the fact whether they have designed a mechanism to catch the offenders?

Question 6) Most of the illicit money which is taken out of India, is brought back and legalised by opaque instruments like P notes and investment by companies registered in Tax havens like Mauritius etc. which allow the holders of this money to remain anonymous. We would like ask the Government as to when will they disallow such opaque instruments like P-notes, which is a mere administrative decision?

Question 7) If 50% of the economic activity in the country has an element of illegality (as suggested by estimates), then it is not an anecdotal or ad-hoc phenomenon. What has this government done to deal with domestic black money, since as estimates suggest 90% of black money is domestic?

Question 8) Funding of political parties is the major avenue where such illicit money finds home. The majority funding of BJP and Congress is opaque. Delhi HC indicted both these parties in March2014 for foreign funding and violations of FEMA. With the obscene display of wealth during elections by these parties, is it BJP’s deliberate strategy to not tackle the menace of illicit money?