Black money is cancer; government committed to bring it back: Subramanian Swamy

New Delhi, Feb 20: Terming black money as cancer for society, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on Thursday said the NDA government was committed to bring back to the country the illegally stashed money abroad.

"The pace (to bring back black money) is slow. In my opinion, I am not happy with that. But we are a democratic party and I am in a minority. Majority feels it should be done slowly (and carefully). Not in one go. So they are doing it. I am confident that we will get it back," Swamy told on the sidelines of an event at Press Club here to discuss black money.

He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi is committed to the cause of bringing back black money. "He (Modi) is very much committed. All say don't give priority to this. Or this will happen or that will happen. Our Parliament will not run. Rajya Sabha will not run. But the government is doing its work," the BJP leader said.

To a question on criticism of NDA government for not putting in more efforts on black money, he said "I am sad why we did not do what we could have done in nine months. But we will be able to do it in next one year. It requires two three strong ministers to do the task".

Swamy criticised the use of Participatory Notes (P Notes), an instrument for overseas entities to invest in Indian stock market, saying it was being used to manipulate it. Black money is because of the P Notes, hawala and variety of other reasons. The Tarapore Committee (constituted by the RBI) had in its report said that stock market can be manipulated by P Notes. It is a real cancer for the society, he said.

Swamy also supported former Union Minister Ram Jethmalani, who was also a speaker at the event, view that Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement(DTAA) was not for bringing back black money but to cause problem for honest businessmen.

PTI