The interminable (बहुत लम्बा/ख़तम न होनेवाला) debate about black money goes on. The recent raids on high profile people – who may have been forewarned by the much publicized inquiry in their cases – have again put the spotlight on corruption and black money. This would seem strange given the fact that in the last few months we had the Income Declaration Scheme 2016, Demonetization and the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana not to mention a slew (ढेर सारा) of stringent measures to prevent the generation of black money. After such a sustained assault, black money should have been something of the past - like the Ambassador car - but the actions of the Government prove that Government itself does not believe that the menace of black money is over.
It is a sad commentary on our system of governance that there is no credible estimate of black money permeating (व्याप्त होना) our system. The total of black money revealed through demonetisation, IDS, PMGKY and Foreign Black Money Act hardly touches Rs. 70,000 crore – barely 0. 5 per cent of our GDP – far short of any estimate of black money. The extent of tax evasion may be inferred from the fact that 90 per cent of the income-tax measure is paid by only 8,000 taxpayers – most of which are PSUs or PSBs. Clearly, something is amiss. All politicians are rags to riches stories with massive asset accumulation in a short period but not a single politician has yet been indicted (दोष लगाना/अपराध लगाना) under any black money law. Rather, demonetisation made even the poor line up to launder the money of their rich principals - making them accomplices in tax evasion.
Here an inconvenient fact has to be mentioned. Contrary to popular perception, small businesses do not generate black money to a significant extent. panwallahs, paanipuriwallahs etc. cause great heartburn to the middle classes who see them earning but not paying any tax. Yet it is a fact that such people hardly earn taxable income and if you pencil in the payoffs to the friendly neighbourhood cop and the municipal staff you will find that they have hardly anything left for a rainy day.
At the time of demonetisation the Government put the blame on cash transactions for generation of black money and there was massive publicity about panwallahs and subziwallahs accepting digital payments, the underlying theme being that the cash economy had been dented. However, after re-monetisation, small traders have reverted (लौट आना/पूर्वस्थिति में लौटना) back to cash because with a literacy rate of barely 50 per cent, most Indians are unable come on the digital platform. Also cash is the most convenient medium of payment and no commission is to be paid to companies like Paytm.
But legitimate cash transactions are not an impediment in the fight against black money because contrary to the Government’s perception, most of the black money is not held in cash and only a small percentage of black money is held in gold and jewellery. Some of the black money is invested in immovable property but the maximum amount of black money has been invested in business - earning returns for their owners.
Big businesses are in another league. They have to spend money to get permissions to carry on or expand their businesses, get government contracts or simply to remain in the good books of people who matter. Perforce (विवशतापूर्वक) , big businesses have to generate black money. Not accounting properly for property sales, scrap sales, taking kickbacks in contracts etc. are some of the methods used to generate black money. Part of this money is paid to political parties and a part is paid to bureaucrats and politicians. We have the CBI and State ACBs to catch the recipients of black money but only the Income-tax Department to check the generation of black money. Given the limited remit of the tax department, no broad based investigation is taken up – only par
