Political posturing again

Will to trace black money missing.

Nothing concrete has emerged out of Wednesday’s debate in Parliament on black money, a favourite subject of BJP leader LK Advani and yoga guru Ramdev. What purpose will a White Paper serve? If the government has refused to divulge the names of the identified culprits in the Supreme Court and Parliament, taking shelter behind some bilateral treaties, it won’t do so in the proposed White Paper. More important than knowing the names of black money account holders is to bring back the illegal wealth stashed in well-known tax havens abroad.

For that the government needs to be firm like the US. It can consider imposing trade curbs with non-cooperating countries, stop Indian firms and banks from doing business with global financial institutions, shut foreign banks' branches here if they do not disclose information about Indian account holders who actually are tax evaders. But does the government have the political will to apply such pressure tactics? Earlier this year the Supreme Court had suggested a special investigation team under a retired judge of the apex court and drawing members from the CBI, the IB, RAW, the Enforcement Directorate and the Income Tax Department to deal with the issue. This needs to be followed expeditiously.

The Tribune, December 16