Modi should apologise for false promises on black money: Congress

The Congress on Monday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to apologise "eight times" to people for his false promises over black money.

"The Prime Minister during his election campaign repeatedly said that he would bring all the black money back to India within 100 days. Today, it is the 827th day of this government. Where is the black money?" said Congress spokesman Manish Tiwari.

Tiwari said that Modi had promised that every person in India would get Rs 15 lakh each of the booty he would get back from foreign banks.

"The Prime Minister should apologise to the poor people who have been checking their bank accounts for the promised amount of Rs 15 lakh," he said.

The Congress barb came the day Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke of put a check on black money by eliminating safe havens for economic offenders at the G20 Summit at Hangzhouin in China.

Tiwari said that while black money is the favourite topic of Modi, his government has not taken any "visible" action against the high profile persons whose names surfaced in the Panama papers leak.

"The Prime Minister's speech on black money is nothing but yet another crude attempt to obfuscate the fact that he and his political party had lied to the country on black money," he said.

He said that whatever little black money the government has been able to bring back was a result of 100-odd dual taxation avoidance treaties and tax information exchange agreements signed during the UPA regime between 2008-2014.

"We would like to ask from the government as to how many new dual taxation agreements or tax information exchange agreements with countries we don't have agreements with have been initiated by this government and the answer would be negligible," Tiwari said.

--IANS

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