Beyond the drama of revealing the list of those who stashed money abroad there is one fact that seems to be lost. That is money is needed to run elections. Some of the same people who donate funds to all political parties (including BJP) to run elections could very well possibly be in the list.
Our current election financing makes the politics beholden to the rich. (Unfortunately the great democracy US is no exception where they just legalized corruption). While parties like BJP would use those badly needed funds to run elections, most parties starting from Congress use that as a reason to amass literally billions of dollars personal illegal wealth. This has engendered dynasties across India starting with Nehru family. Note that though India's election system has limitation on how much a candidate spends it has no limit on what party would spend. The problem is those who donate do not wish to be named and they donate both sides so that they gain no matter who wins. Moreover, that money may even be unaccounted money.
In 1991, leading Swiss magazine Illustre Schweiger reported many world leaders who stashed wealth in Swiss banks. This is around the same time wealth of Marcos from Phillippine was divulged and was later successfully pursued. That article reported Rajiv Gandhi had an account with 2 billion US dollars. That is drop in the bucket. Since India independence, increasingly since liberalization, per respected Global Financial Integrity, India has lost 400+ billion dollars, just based on under invoicing (well known technique), and it is just part of the story. Today tax havens exist all around the world, including India!!!! Did you know that the locations where these tax havens exist are also vacation resorts?
Last year we traced the journalist in Switzerland who wrote the 1991 Illustre Schweiger article but she was not willing to cooperate, mostly perhaps due to the Swiss laws that protect the account holders. We even consulted the Swiss attorney who pursued Marcos wealth and he said he cannot pursue until Indian Government authorizes it. Why would those who loot give authorization in the first place? Here is the problem. Even if we pursue, there has been very little success around the world to get back the wealth stashed away in safe havens. (Even US success with Swiss banks was based on a whistle blower list and US is a powerful country that was able to put lot of pressure). We need to understand that Swiss and other safe havens exist to protect those who deposit, not those who were looted. It is a continuation of colonization and imperialism, just a different form.
We need to think through this holistically. We need to stem the future looting. We need to change financing of India's elections. There should be some way of public private cooperation just like US has and we can improve on it. We also need to put stringent limits on pursuing cases of politicians who amassed personal wealth so that they do not drag for ages like that of Jayalalitha. Courts should nationalize the wealth of all the illegally amassed wealth both in India and abroad. At least in case of Jayalalitha and even Robert Vadra they amassed wealth in India, but those like Sonia have neatly stashed away in safe havens, perhaps even Vatican banks which are all difficult to return. From what I understand, back in 2009 Sonia negotiated with Italian premier to got good terms in Italian amnesty scheme to convert all the looted funds to accounted funds!!! This web of things make us wonder where we are going with all this.
But try we must and do our best to get back the money, but we need to be rooted in realism and work hard to stem future corruption. Let us start with Participatory notes.
Regards,
Satya
Satya
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----Original Message-----
From: 'S. Kalyanaraman' kalyan97@gmail.com [prajnabharata] <prajnabharata@yahoogroups.com>
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Sent: Sat, Oct 18, 2014 1:27 pm
Subject: [prajnabharata] Arun Jaitley's defense of dogged persistence. Has NaMo consultedl all experts to get back kaala dhan?
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.com/2014/10/arun-jaitleys-defense-of-dogged.htmlOCT18Arun Jaitley's defense of dogged persistence. Has NaMo consultedl all experts to get back kaala dhan?
FM Arun Jaitley: NDA's approach on black money doggedly persistent, not adventurist
By ECONOMICTIMES.COM | 18 Oct, 2014, 03.16PM IST
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/fm-arun-jaitley-ndas-approach-on-black-money-doggedly-persistent-not-adventurist/articleshow/44867666.cms
"Nobody has ever suggested that the names should not be made public. They should be made public in accordance with the existing due process of law," he reiterated. NEW DELHI: Seeking to clarify the NDA government's stand on the issue of black money,Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday said, "The NDA government will not withhold any information, including names of account holders who have stashed black money abroad, from the public; but the names will be revealed after following the due process of completing investigations and reaching conclusions about quantum of unaccounted money."
"The NDA government stands committed to detect the names, prosecuting the guilty and making them public. We are not going to be pushed into an act of adventurism where we violate the treaties and then plead that we are no longer able to get the cooperation of reciprocating states," Jaitley wrote in his blog. "Such an approach may actually help the account holders. Adventurism will be short-sighted. A mature approach will take us to the root of the matter," he added.
"Any premature and out of court disclosure of the names of account holders would not only vitiate the investigations but will enable such account holders to get away with their offences. It will also violate India's Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements (DTAA) with other countries and will choke receipt of all further information from those countries," Jaitley went on to elaborate.
"All that the Government has requested the Supreme Court is to clarify that it has not prohibited the Government of India to enter into Treaties with countries wherein a commitment may be made by the Government to maintain confidentiality of information received as per international standards," he said. "If such a commitment to maintain the confidentiality is not given we will not receive any information about Indians hiding their money in other countries including offshore financial centres and tax havens. Thus the clarification sought from the Supreme Court is only to facilitate collection of information about illegal money stashed abroad," he added.
"On October 15, 2014, a team of officials led by Revenue Secretary and comprising of Chairman, CBDT has signed a Joint Statement with the appropriate authorities in Switzerland with regard to investigation into black money stacked in Swiss banks," Jaitley said. He went on to explain the four important aspects of that agreement which are:
(i) With regard to the list available with India of account holders in the HSBC, where Indian tax authorities have conducted independent investigations, the Swiss would provide India with details upon our furnishing of adequate evidence in this regard.
(ii) Whenever India has some information/ documentary evidence, the Swiss would confirm the authenticity or otherwise of that evidence.
(iii) This would be done in a time bound manner.
(iv) Discussion would now start on a bilateral agreement on automatic exchange of information in the banking system. If this bilateral arrangement is arrived at, it will be an important milestone in detection of black money held by Indians in the Swiss banks.--
S. Kalyanaraman
__._,_.___
__,_._,___
"The NDA government stands committed to detect the names, prosecuting the guilty and making them public," Jaitley wrote in his blog.Satya
#evmindia
#satyad
Satya
#evmindia
#satyad
Satya
#evmindia
#satyad
Satya
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.