Fightng Black Money is Like asking fish to dry the pond

The Lok Sabha debate on black money was a waste of time. The Finance Minister kept repeating himself, if the names of the account holders were to be disclosed in violation of the treaty, no country would share any information and if there were any evaders in the list they would get be free.

Waste of time because every political party starting with the Congress, every few minutes one member would rise say the same thing, the explanation was not satisfactory so we are walking out. Really, the Congress was at the helm of affairs when this issue surfaced. Could they not throw light on the issue which they want us to believe the Government is hiding and is a list of just 427 names worth walking out for.

 

Assume all 427 are guilty, will penalising them or putting them in jail going to rid the country of this menace. Their major point was that the BJP promised results in 100 days. The fact that black money abounds and most likely given the situation in Goa, most of it will be in the hands of ruling politicians. Ofcourse, you can hear them say in one voice, if proved we will resign. In short the debate in parliament to me was an eye wash.

While the BJP has a point, disclosing the names will not serve any long term purpose, on the other hand surely they can go after some of the black money still in the country. Or can that happen only after the 427 names are cleared.

Black money is of two types in my opinion. One which is unaccounted after a legitimate business transaction. Quite a few businessmen generate cash income which is taxable but they prefer to avoid paying income tax, so they would have broken the law. This should not be a priority. Given the increasing level of IT usage, KYC norms, requirements of PAN no etc, slowly but surely the net is widening to encompass such evaders. Increasing consumerism is pushing the cash out. Today people who have it want to flaunt it. 

The more serious and dangerous black money is generated by corruption. This is what can be termed as anti national and deserving of the quick and harsh punishment in say Singapore. We do want to be a tiger economy like Singapore, but without the hard rules. The Mumbai bomb blasts showed how a few corrupt officials allowed death to pass by them for a few rupees, assuming it was just another consignment of drugs or gold, not realising it was RDX.

We have corrupt politicians who have no qualms about selling the countries wealth just so that their nests are feathered. Watching them we have our bureaucrats who also guide and act as enablers to help the politicians. Today, they do not need businessmen, politicians have become businessmen, going by the number of crorepatis in Parliament. The few who oppose the politicians nefarious designs are shunted around a la Kiran Bedi.

We can surely not expect politicians to address this issue because that is like asking fish t o dry the pond. They will do anything for votes and another politician can be useful especially if he has corrupt baggage. The general defense is there is no proof, or if implicated the charges are assumed to be politically motivated. 

In Goa, the BJP rose to power and there are great expectations of change. Three years on that expectation is still waiting to be fulfilled. There were a number of scams, yet today not one has seen the light of day. To be fair, one officer in GIDC was terminated. What about the others, did he act alone? There is a clear cut case against the previous Chairman of GIDC, yet no case is registered. More like dangling the sword has more value than striking. The same situation exists in the mining cases, now the figure is down to 3000 crores, great can we see some action, surely it did not happen without political support. This refusal to act against the politicians is a national malaise. The Jayalatha case was significant because it has bucked the trend. If every prosecutor or investigating agency did their job as well as the people involved in the Jaylaltha case, we would see more convictions. Once we have more convictions we will see a reduction in corruption, if not it is a gamble with no down side.

A government employee facing a disproportionate assets case, explained his source of income as fees for performing religious services. Either he has to charge a huge amount per session or he has to be doing it full time. Both are not feasible, so obviously it is income from another source. Can the investigator not question those who are reported to have paid the fees and conclude if the source is genuine or not. However this is the trend, politicians show income from farms, fishing trawlers and hotels. Yet full time farmers commit suicide and trawler owners regularly ask for governmental assistance in the form of diesel subsidy and non politician hotels never have 100% occupancy.

This illegal money turned into legal money is then used to invest in other legitimate business. It is literally cocking a snoop at the anti money laundering act and laughing all the way to the bank.

PM, Modi is doing away with archaic laws, one he must look at seriously is the law that makes paying a bribe a crime. It should be repealed and only receiving a bribe should be a crime. Will he have the political will to do it? That would make a difference in the fight against black money not a debate.