Black Money White Paper May 2012
Generation of black money and its stashing abroad in tax havens and offshore financial centres have dominated discussions and debate in public fora during the last two years. Members of Parliament, the Supreme Court of India and the public at large have unequivocally expressed concern on the issue, particularly after some reports suggested estimates of such unaccounted wealth being held abroad. The Finance Minister, while responding to an adjournment motion on the 'Situation Arising out of Money Deposited Illegally in Foreign Banks and Action Being Taken against the Guilty Persons' in the Lok Sabha on 14 December 2011 gave an assurance that a white paper on black money would be prepared. This document is being presented to Parliament as a result.
The Objective of this Paper
The objective of this paper is to place in the public domain various facets and dimensions of black money and its complex relationship with the policy and administrative regime in the country. The paper also presents the framework, policy options, and strategies that the Government of India has been pursuing to tackle this issue, especially recent initiatives and developments. The paper is expected to contribute to the ongoing debate on the issue of black money and help develop a broad political consensus regarding the future course of action to address it.
The Problem and its Complexities
1. Black money is a term used in common parlance to refer to money that is not fully legitimate in the hands of the owner. This could be for two possible reasons. The first is that the money may have been generated through illegitimate activities not permissible under the law, like crime, drug trade, terrorism, and corruption, all of which are punishable under the legal framework of the state. The second and perhaps more likely reason is that the wealth may have been generated and accumulated by failing to pay the dues to the public exchequer in one form or other. In this case, the activities undertaken by the perpetrator could be legitimate and otherwise permissible under the law of the land but s/he has failed to report the income so generated, comply with the tax requirements, or pay the dues to the public exchequer, leading to the generation of this wealth.
2. A comparison of the two ways in which black money is generated is fundamental to understanding the problem and devising the appropriate policy mix with which it can be controlled and prevented by the public authorities. At the very outset, it becomes clear that the first category is one where a strongly intolerant attitude with adequate participation of all state arms can produce results. It is the second category where the issue becomes far more complex and may require modifying, reforming, and redesigning major policies to promote compliance with laws, regulations, and taxes and deter the active economic agents of society from generating, hoarding, and illicitly transferring abroad such unaccounted wealth.
3. One of the reasons for the complexity of the problem of black money is the differences in perceived interests and objectives of taxpayers and the tax authority. Theoretically, one can postulate a particular level of regulation and tax that creates appropriate balance between the three different but related objectives, namely ensuring efficiency of a market economy, ensuring efficiency of the state with respect to its goals of providing requisite public goods and promoting equity, or what is often referred as good governance, and ensuring that the incentives for compliance are not distorted in a self-defeating manner. However, in practice it may be difficult to bring about this balance and convergence in the interests of the stakeholders. It is therefore necessary to create awareness about these aspects and encourage understanding about the lack of any universal panaceas or magic remedies for this complex socio-economic problem.
4. Prevention of unacceptable aberrant behaviour needs strong policy deterrence. The need of the hour is to create effective administrative systems, using technology-based data processing, to generate actionable intelligence. In a federal structure of governance, this will require cooperation between agencies of the central and state governments. Moreover in an increasingly globalized environment, it would need strong initiatives on part of the Indian state to develop and strengthen mutual cooperation with the rest of the world.
Best Regards
Prakash Nair
