New Delhi: The amount of black money stashed abroad could be in excess of Rs 9.41 lakh, which would be the combined net worth of many African countries. Three agencies entrusted by the government to study the black money outside India has revealed that the figures could be as high as $ 490 billion.
Though the reports were submitted to the government between 2013 and August 2014, they were never made public. One argument goes that the wide variation in the figures presented by the three bodies held back the government from going public with the findings.
They were shared with the finance committee chairman Veerappa Moily in 2017, who was allegedly “restrained” from sharing it with committee members. But the findings have made it to the public domain and have been picked up by various news outlets.
The Findings:
National Institute of Financial Management (NIFM):
The amount of black money outside India was Rs 9.41 lakh crore or $216.48 billion between 1990 and 2008. Illicit outflows from the country are estimated on average to 10% of the estimated unaccounted income.
The National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER)
Wealth accumulated outside India was estimated between $384 billion and US $490 billion in the years 1980 to 2010. This report was submitted to the government in July 2014. Taking the capital outflow worth (stock) US $498 billion, its share in total unaccounted wealth can be estimated as 2.8%.
National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP).
Illicit financial flows out of the country during the period 1997-2009 was in the range of 0.2 per cent to 7.4 per cent of the GDP.
Lawmakers such as Bhartruhari Mahtab of BJD and Saugarta Ray of TMC had demanded that the three reports be made public. Mahtab had also demanded that that the finance panel prepare a report on the issue of black money and submit it before the end of the 16th Lok Sabha in June.
On Thursday, the matter was again debated at the meeting of the finance panel. Moily is understood to have asked Revenue Secretary Ajay Bhushan Oandey to release the report.
In a report in 2009, the standing committee on finance had observed that the ministry should conduct a thorough assessment or survey of unaccounted income.
In October 2010, the then finance minister accorded approval for these studies to be conducted by the above-mentioned institutes. Their terms of reference included, among others, an assessment or survey of unaccounted income and wealth both inside and outside the country.
