Aam Aadmi Party statement on PM’s comments on black money at G-20 Summit

Aam Aadmi Party statement on PM’s comments on black money at G-20 Summit :

Prime Minister Narendra Modi‘s pitch for repatriation of black money stashed abroad and calling for “close coordination” among nations on this issue, at the G20 summit in Brisbane in Australia, has less to do with tackling the menace of black money at the international level and more to do with scoring brownie political points in the domestic political arena.

India has entered into few significant international conventions/treaties/agreements. Three of the most crucial ones are:

1. OECD Framework for Automatic Exchange of Information in Tax Matters
2. Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters
3. United Nations Convention Against Corruption

These treaties/conventions primarily facilitate and provide for the following:

1. Automatic exchange of account holder data to tax authorities by financial institutions in members states
2. Addresses difficulties faced by authorities when individuals under investigation move assets between bank accounts and jurisdictions
3. Renders full sanction to make changes in the laws of our country to tackle black money menace permanently
4. Give powers to override ‘bank secrecy laws’ and prohibits states parties from declining to render mutual legal assistance on the ground of bank secrecy
5. Mutual Assistance by different tax jurisdictions on matters of international taxation
6. Ensures that states parties shall afford one another the widest measure of mutual legal assistance in investigations, prosecutions and judicial proceedings in relation to the offences covered by these conventions
7. Empowers state parties to freeze, seize and confiscate illicit money

These comprehensively documented charters make it amply clear that the international state parties are empowered to act in accordance the above mentioned points. The pitch made by the Prime Minister is not only covered by these charters, but sufficiently documented, signed and ratified by the International state parties including India.

Therefore, the Prime Minister Modi’s pitch for close coordination among international state parties can only be classified as another rhetorical address to score political brownie points and a failed attempt at garnering the crumbling faith of the people in this government on the issue of black money.

The people of this nation have been duped by the BJP led central government on the issue of black money and the consistent U-turns have portrayed the BJP’s lack of intent in tackling this menace. The government must realise that the time for rhetoric and hyperbole is over, and they must deliver on their promises, particularly the one of providing each citizen with Rs.15lac each on repatriation of black money to India.

Aam Aadmi Party would like to make following suggestions to the government, which has for the N^th time resorted to only rhetoric, hyperbole and hollow-talk to save its face on the issue of black money, would be enact the following actionable measures immediately:

• A new law, or an amendment to an existing law (such as the Prevention of Money Laundering Act), requiring all Indian citizens to disclose all their assets and bank accounts in India and abroad needs to be introduced. Such a law would require citizens to annually disclose a full list of their assets and liabilities, including their stakes in companies or trusts registered abroad.
• Any income or assets that are not disclosed in the required form would be deemed to be “proceeds of crime”, and included as ‘predicate offences’ defined under the UNCAC. This would enable the law enforcement agencies to recover the said assets under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, or the provisions of the UNCAC allowing for seizure and confiscation of assets that are proceeds of crime.
• Instruments such as participatory notes and anonymous investments by funds or shell companies need to be disallowed with immediate effect. Every time a company invests in stocks or other financial instruments in the Indian Stock Exchange or elsewhere, the relevant authority must be able to determine the exact ownership of the investment, ending in the final individuals who hold the money that is being invested. In the case of investments made in the name of a company or a trust, the major stakeholders of the company, or the trustees of the trust, must be determined and duly recorded, before the investment is allowed.
• Proceedings to be initiated against the foreign banks which are indulging in hawala and similar illegitimate ways of laundering money and encouraging tax evasion. They must also be compelled to furnish lists of all Indian account-holders in their foreign branches.(ENDS)