Tuesday 9 June 2015

How to bring back Black money?

For Black Money Act - CLICK HERE

There are four ways by which the names and accounts that are illegally held abroad can be ascertained, and the money stashed away brought back.



  1. "First, Central Bureau of Investigation/Enforcement Directorate can register a First Information Report on the receipt of information of illegal accounts through Intelligence sources, and then obtain a Letter of Request u/s 166A of the Criminal Procedure Code (1973) from a designated court. Then, the agency can use Switzerland’s Law On International Judicial Assistance in Criminal Matters and seek Swiss cooperation to confiscate the account."
  2. The German or French method of obtaining records of a particular bank by using monetary inducements - as was done with the Bank of Liechtenstein and HSBC in Geneva.
  3. US Method - Arrest officers of the Swiss Bank's Branch in One's country on charges of espionage to pressurise Swiss authorities into giving names of U.S. citizens who had illegally opened bank accounts in those banks that had claimed secrecy as a business principle. India also has Swiss bank branch offices in Mumbai.
  4. Suggested by Fali S. Nariman - invoking the Resolution of the UN Convention against Corruption, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2005 and ratified by India in 2011.


This requires Parliament to pass a law. Or, as a first step, it requires the President to issue an Ordinance to nationalise all the bank accounts of Indian citizens in the 90-odd nations where black money is stashed. Thereafter, bilateral discussions with each of these countries can take place to get hold of the accounts.
More steps that can be taken?
  • Moreover, SIT must seek a report from the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of the Indian government on what it has done about suspicious transactions reported by banks and act on atleast 100 major suspicious transactions. 
  • GST - lplug some gaps
  • greater monitoring of export-import trade and the setting up of a dedicated unit, along the lines of the Trade Transparency Unit in the US, to check the mismatch between the country’s export-import data and that of other nations — a recommendation made by the Special Investigation Team constituted by the Supreme Court — will certainly help. 
  • Despite having recognised that real estate in India is a major source of the generation of black money, there has been a great reluctance to bring this sector under regulatory watch. Korea has been successful in some ways in fighting this by mandating that more transactions be carried out electronically. 
    •  India, too, should move towards laying down a medium-term roadmap as Aadhaar-linked schemes gain traction and more people become part of the formal banking system. 
  • Most importantly, to succeed in this battle, governance reforms and an easing of the path for entrepreneurs and businesses will be key.

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