Yes/No

BJP & Advaniji have expressed their view to bring back black money to India. Do you agree?

Yes/No

Which party can bring back the black money lying in the Swiss Banks?

BJP/Congress

The black money lying in the Swiss Banks is the reason for political instability, corruption & terrorism?

Yes/No

If this black money is back in India then India can pay back all debts & the money will be useful for poors. Do you agree?

The press conference was held in the backdrop of Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh’s visit to London on April 2 to attend the G-20 summit, where, I had stated, the issue was likely to be discussed. The issue was indeed discussed and the final statement of the Summit Leaders affirmed that they would “take action against non-cooperative jurisdictions, including tax havens. We stand ready to deploy sanctions to protect our public finances and financial systems. The era of banking secrecy is over. We note that the OECD has today published a list of countries assessed by the Global Forum against the international standard for exchange of tax information.”

What is surprising is that the Prime Minister did not mention this point in his opening written statement to the press on the conclusion of the G-20 summit. In his lengthy remarks at the official dinner hosted by Britain’s Prime Minister Gordon Brown on April 1 on the occasion of the G-20 meeting, Dr. Singh alluded to this matter in a casual one-sentence reference that said: “We should also endorse sharing information and bringing tax havens and non-cooperating jurisdictions under closer scrutiny.”

The PM failed to raise India’s concerns over the huge quantity of its sovereign wealth deposited in secret bank accounts abroad. He also chose not to express the Indian government’s resolve to bring the monies back through international cooperation. Earlier, at the preparatory meet at Berlin for the G-20 Summit, the Indian delegation did not even talk about tax havens, knowing fully well that it is a major item for the OECD countries.

It is obvious from the final communiqué of the Summit Leaders that other members of G-20 were far more vociferous than India in stating the “era of banking secrecy is over”. They went to the extent of demanding “sanctions” against tax havens. Indeed, on the occasion of the G-20 Summit, OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development), a grouping of developed countries, officially released a statement estimating that about $11 trillion (Rs. 550 lakh crore) was parked in tax havens. It also released the blacklist of non-cooperative nations, and specifically mentioned Switzerland among them.

If developed countries in OECD have taken the issue of Swiss bank accounts so seriously, why did the government of a developing country like India not show similar seriousness? Who is in greater need of this stolen wealth – India or OECD countries? Is it the claim of the UPA Government that no corruption and crime money from India is deposited in Swiss banks and other tax havens? Or is it finding it uncomfortable to prise open the veil of secrecy of these tax havens?

In this context, I would like the Prime Minister to release the list of travel destinations of his Cabinet Ministers in the last five years – particularly Switzerland and other tax havens when they were not part of their official tour agenda.

The G-20 statement has vindicated my affirmation in my last week’s press conference that the western nations want strict action against banking secrecy and tax havens. It is sad to see that the Government of India is not enthusiastic.