M A I N   N E W S

Bound by norms, can’t reveal foreign a/c holders’ names: FM
But promises White Paper on black money; Advani’s adjournment motion defeated
Aditi Tandon/TNS

New Delhi, December 14
It’s now official. The government has names of 36,000 Indians holding foreign bank accounts but won’t disclose them merely to satisfy the inquisitiveness of parliamentarians.

It will, however, continue to chase hoarders of illegal wealth abroad. But it is a separate matter that no country anywhere - be it the US, the UK or France - in the past has managed to squeeze out information on account holders from any of the 206 existing tax havens.

And though the government currently has no idea of the extent of the problem, it has asked three research institutions to make what Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today described as an “authoritative assessment” of the quantum of illegal Indian money stashed abroad. Once he knows, he will mention it in the White Paper the UPA government is drafting on the subject.

The Opposition’s much-hyped adjournment motion on black money fell through in the Lok Sabha following a voice vote on Wednesday. Mover of the motion, BJP’s LK Advani, who had vehemently flagged the issue during his 40-day Jan Chetna Yatra, seemed satisfied with the government’s response as the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) members didn’t walk out in protest once the motion was defeated.

The Samajwadi Party, led by Mulayam Singh Yadav, was the only political outfit that boycotted the defence Mukherjee mounted for the UPA.

The FM had full moral support and was flanked by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi. In the back benches sat AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi, absent during the debate that lasted from 12 noon to 5 pm and saw 18 speakers.

The Treasury attendance was full during Mukherjee’s reply, thanks to the whip theCongress had issued for attendance just in case anyone sought a division of vote. No one did, not even the Left.

The high-voltage debate was marked by tension between Advani and Pranab with the latter rejecting the demand of declaring black money abroad as a national asset or of sharing the names of account holders.

“I can’t disclose names to satisfy your inquisitiveness. I am bound by the secrecy clauses of Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements (DTAAs) under which we get information. Today, I disclose the names. Tomorrow, they hold us liable for violation of clauses. We will dry up all our sources,” said the Finance Minister, asking the House if he should send the armed forces to declare money located in sovereign Switzerland as a “national asset”.

The principal queries of the Opposition remained unanswered: what’s the quantum of black money; how many people have been punished for opening foreign accounts without permission and why the quantum of illegal wealth abroad has risen sharply post liberalisation in India whose tax rates are now so low.

“None of my questions have been answered. The government should know the extent of black money. We hope you will state it in your White Paper,” Advani told Pranab, who quoted several ranges for quantum of black money - $1,500 to 1,900 billion as per Swiss Bank Association whose office the FM said he could not locate; $500 to 1400 billion as per BJP Task Force on Black Money and $462 billion lost between 1948 and 2008, as stated by think tank Global Finance Integrity.

On non-disclosure of names, the government was firm. “Some of them could be genuine account holders, exporters or investors. India has been a large investor in EU for the past three years. We have to see the impact of such disclosures on business, people’s reputations,” the FM said, rejecting the Opposition’s charge that the UPA lacked the initiative to get the money back. India, he said, was pressing in the G-20 for automatic sharing of tax related information without conditions of past and present and also nations’ cooperation in realising the money from assets located in their lands.