Sareshwala hails 'statesman' PM Modi's intervention on black money issue

Businessman Zafar Sareshwala on Sunday praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi's statesman-like approach on the black money issue, and termed its flagging at the G-20 Summit here as an appropriate step.

"If you observe his speech in the Parliament, then he went and spoke at the BRICS nation Summit in Brazil, then in the UN, and today again when he spoke at the G-20. He is speaking almost as a statesman and he has come at the world stage," Sareshwala told ANI here.

"I think there could not have been a better platform to talk about black money than this. Because India's black money, whatever, is stored in any of these 20 countries. And India is more concerned about that than any of these nations,these nations also have their own problems," he said.

Lauding Prime Minister Modi, Sareshwala also cited examples that allow companies to evade taxes and shift their profits elsewhere.

"A lot of companies they buy a small company ...American companies they buy in some European country where the tax is much lower than their country. So, their money's are also stashed there, not the way it is of India. So, I think Mr. Modi made the correct use of the platform," he said.

On a poser as to whether the Prime Minister's speech will have any reverberations globally, Sareshwala said, "It's not that they would not pay any attention to it. Maybe, it would be difficult, as people have been saying. Whatever is coming back, for me, the bigger issue is that at least with this new found approach, at least more money will not go out of this country."

Earlier during his speech at the G-20 plenary session, Prime Minister Modi once again raised the issue of scourge of black money and sought for global co-ordination to deal with this issue.

Prime Minister Modi began his day by meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud during the ongoing G-20 Summit. Besides, he is scheduled to have a meeting with the Spanish Prime Minister later in the day and unveil Gandhi Statue among others.

Yesterday, the Prime Minister had met the BRICS leaders and also had one-on-one interactions with leaders from France, Canada and Saudi Arabia.

After attending the G-20 Summit in Brisbane, Prime Minister Modi is scheduled to travel to Sydney, where he will attend a reception organized by and for the Indian Diaspora.

Prime Minister Modi will then travel to Canberra and address the special joint sitting of the Australian Parliament on November 18. He will also address an Indian community event in Melbourne before travelling to Fiji.

Interviewed and reported by Naveen Kapoor/Copy edited by Subhajit Chandra and Amit Shankar.