Black money - Disclose all names, Congress demand

The Congress Monday lambasted the BJP-led central government for failing to come up with the entire list of people who have stashed black money in tax havens abroad.

Congress spokesperson Sanjay Jha said this was in stark contrast to the Bharatiya Janata Party's election manifesto which promised to bring back black money speedily.

"The BJP had promised to bring back black money in 100 days if they came to power. During the campaign for general election they had promised people to reveal all names who had put illegal money in foreign banks," Jha told IANS.

He said it was the UPA which had actually pursued the matter with sincerity.

"Our government had revealed 26 such names to the Supreme Court of India. The present government's stand on black money looks dubious as they are in no hurry to reveal all names," Jha maintained.

Gurudas Dasgupta of CPI too questioned the government for failing to come out with the entire list.

He asked: "The whole list should come out. The government has published only the names of three businessmen. But are there people in high places too? Are there political persons? Who are the real people?"

The central government Monday disclosed the names of three people, including Pradeep Burman, who hold bank accounts in foreign countries and are now under the lens of the income tax authorities.

Black money - Why India Govt is afraid of increasing unaccounted wealth

For the government and the economy, growth in black money is worrying because government loses out on taxable income and can never be used for nation building

NEW DELHI (Commodity Online): India government has filed an affidavit before the Supreme Court naming three prominent businessmen Pradip Burman, formerly of Dabur Group, Goa based miner Radha S Timblo and Rajkot based bullion trader Pankaj Chimanlal Lodhya.

These businessmen had allegedly stashed money abroad and the government has stated that that information received from foreign countries will be disclosed in all cases where tax evasion is established.

Meanwhile, Dabur India has issued a statement saying that there was nothing illegal about Pradip Burman's account abroad as he had opened it while he had non-resident Indian status and Lodhya has denied having any Swiss bank account.

"I have no account in the Swiss bank. I have no foreign bank account. I came to know about this from media.... I am shocked," Lodhiya told reporters here.

"I have declared all my wealth before the Income Tax department," he said.

Why black money is worrying

Several Indians are reported to have stashed crores of rupees abroad mainly in Swiss bank accounts and Wiki Leaks had come out with several prominent names recently.

For the government and the economy, growth in black money is worrying because government loses out on taxable income and can never be used for nation building. On the other hand it enables lot of clever people who manipulate the system, evade taxes and generate huge wealth creating inequality in society. According to some estimates, the amount of black money in Indian economy could rival that of the nation's GDP- with black money stashed abroad estimated at $1.4 trillion.

How could a bullion dealer generate and store black money: Here are some possibilities identified by Commodity Online Research Desk:

-Physical dealers make changes in purity of bullion and this never gets accounted.
-Gold cannot be held in purest form for making jewellery and other metals are mixed for durability which customers are not aware.

-Buying physical gold or silver is more expensive than investing in an ETF, so that dealers charge a premium like cost of delivery, storage and insurance and when you sell your dealer will take a cut.

-Physical dealers are also taking making charges when you buy and they cut that when you sell and they can also change the form of the purity

-Physical traders may buy in Nuggets or bars in Bullions and depending on purity and other factors and they can change later on depending on requirements. They are not as easy to buy and sell as bullion bars or coins.

-Bullion traders also trade in futures market and taking that delivery of bullions and they can easily make ornaments from their metals with adding some other some metals and they are making some profits also.

-Chimanlal Lodhya had other businesses include Real estate and ornaments which could have been a safe conduit to transact unaccounted money.

Lodhiya is the owner of city-based Shreeji Trading Company, which is involved in bullion trading. It has business links in all major cities of the country for gold trading.

The firm offers wholesale delivery of bullion to domestic users like ornament manufacturers, goldsmiths, jewellers and semi-wholesalers.

The group, established 15 years back, has branch networks in Ahmedabad, New Delhi, Jaipur, Raipur, Indore and Bangalore, its website said.

It has two subsidiaries - Shreeji Ornaments Pvt Ltd and Shreeji Realty.

Lodhiya's firm also started a spot precious metal online trading system called Shreeji Spot in 2008.

3 Black Money Account holders in India

The government may on Monday file an additional affidavit in the Supreme Court over the black money issue, stating clarification on its earlier stand of not revealing the names of those account holders who have deposited money in foreign banks.

According to media reports, amid a growing clamour for naming of alleged black money holders, the Centre may also reveal the names of three account holders in the additional affidavit.

The Narendra Modi government, which had promised to bring back black money kept by Indians in foreign banks, recently toed the line of the previous UPA regime by informing Supreme Court that it cannot make public such details as have been shared by countries with which India has a double taxation avoidance agreement.

Slamming the NDA government for stating that it cannot disclose details of the data shared by it with foreign countries regarding black money, Rajya Sabha MP and senior lawyer Ram Jethmalani last week said that its recent submission in Supreme Court in the matter was "ill-advised".

Switzerland has promised to co-operate with India on black money saying that it will examine requests for banking information on a priority basis but a former Swiss Bank employee and a whistleblower Rudolf Elemer says that India must press for names and figures.

"To be fair here, there is a lot of talk going on and promises made, but understand that the Indian government is the world champion in delaying things especially about information. Therefore, as long as the Indian government does not have facts, names and figures, it is not positive move for present government. At the end of the day you need to have the information - client's name, amount, if there is no deadline agreed on, then you're still in the air and you don't know if you are going to receive the information tomorrow or in 2019 when Switzerland implements automatic information exchange," Elmer was quoted as saying by television channel CNN-IBN.

Last week, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley warned the Congress that it would face "embarrassment" because "a big name" from the party is on the list of Indians who hold illicit foreign bank accounts. The Congress had called it an attempted blackmail.