Black money is income earned surreptitiously or illegally, usually in cash, and not reported to the government so as to avoid paying taxes on it.

One of the easiest ways of making black money is not to pay the taxes.

Of all the people who are legally responsible for paying taxes only 2.5%of the people honestly pay up.

Other ways of making black money include depositing money in foreign banks, weapons and drugs smuggling, taking bribes, overnight visa offers etc.

India has a population of 450 million living under the poverty line.

If all the $1.4 trillion could be brought back then India’s foreign debt which amounts to $237billion could be paid off within 24 hours.

After this India will be left with $1.81 trillion which if used can make all taxes unnecessary.

India is one of the hungriest country in the world. Investing $300 billion will put all Indians out of the hunger trap.

India will then be left with $181 billion of which $60 billion should be used to reinforce defense capabilities.

The remaining $121 billion should be used in improving the Indian villages, funding higher education and developing cutting edge scientific research facilities.

Recently, due to international pressure, the Swiss government agreed to disclose the names of the account holders only if the respective governments formally asked for it.. The Indian government is not asking for the details. The most obvious reason is that this would lead to naming various UPA politicians.

This has given ground for public protests all over India which had been prominently led by social activist Anna Hazare and yoga guru Baba Ramdev.

On 4 July,2010 the Supreme Court has criticized the Central Government for dragging its feet over the matter and took matters in its own hands .

Appointed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) ~ to be headed by retired SC judge Mr. B.P. Jeevan Reddy ~ to help track undeclared money stashed abroad by Indians.

The new committee has been empowered to travel to other countries and collect information from government agencies. 

Apart from this the good news that has recently hit news papers is that Switzerland has signed a contract with India and is called Restitution of Illegal Assets Act (RIAA).

This will allow the Government to freeze accounts and will become workable from January 2012.

Presentation by…Paroma Ghosh Susweta Bose