What NDA had done to bring back black money? asks Cong

Jangipur (West Bengal), Apr 18 (PTI) The Congress
Saturday hit back at the main opposition BJP for claiming that
it would bring back in 100 days crores of rupees hidden by
Indian nationals in secret Swiss accounts and tax havens,
asking what the previous NDA regime had done to bring back
black money from abroad.

"What did the NDA precisely do to unearth and bring back
money stashed by Indian nationals outside the country when
they were in power?" India's External Affairs Minister Pranab
Mukherjee demanded.

He told reporters here in eastern state of West Bengal
that the erstwhile government had enacted a "toothless"
Prevention of Money Laundering Act in 2002 which the UPA
government had amended twice in 2004 and 2009.

According to the assessment of the BJP, he said, the
black money deposited in foreign banks varied between USD 500
billion to 1400 billion.

"But is there any specific figure available with anybody
about the quantum of black money deposited abroad? This is my
question. And, so far as the government is concerned, it is
still investigating."

Mukherjee said the Central government's attention has
been drawn to a media report on the annual statement of the
Swiss Bank Association for 2006, 2007 and 2008 which put the
amount deposited in Swiss banks by Indian nationals at between
USD 1456 billion and 1891 billion.

The issue was raised when the amendment to the Prevention
of Money Laundering Act was discussed in Parliament on
February 24, 2009, Mukherjee said.

"But it was pointed out that this figure was not
confirmed by Swiss authorities. The websites of Swiss Banks
available to us did not mention any such report or figure,"
he said.

India had instructed its ambassador to Switzerland to
ascertain the position with the Swiss authorities, he said.

Mukherjee said that the law enacted during the NDA regime
was also not found satisfactory by the Organisation of
Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), an international
organisation helping governments to tackle economic
challenges.

The government was now negotiating with the Financial
Action Task Force (FATF), he said.

The global fora had categorised countries into three
groups on the basis of their following the OECD standard,
Mukherjee said.

Those following the standard and wanted to implement it
fell in the first category.

Those countries which had agreed to comply, but were yet
to implement it were in the second group, while those
countries which had said they would not follow it were in the
third category.

However, following the G-20 conclave recently, the third
category countries had agreed to follow the standard,
Mukherjee said.

Stating that the government was doing whatever was needed
in this direction, Mukherjee said, "If necessary, we will
amend bilateral agreements like Double Tax Agreement and the
Prevention, Promotion and Protection Agreement."

The External Affairs Minister pointed out that Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh, in a statement at the G-20 summit on
April 1, had called for stronger regulation and improved
supervision while emphasising on sharing of information and
bringing tax havens and non-cooperative jurisdictions under
close scrutiny.

The G-20 Summit on April 2 incorporated the spirit of the
Prime Minister's statement in its declaration in which the
leaders agreed to take action against non-cooperative
jurisdictions including tax havens, he said. PTI