Why the Finance Ministry won’t reveal black money report for now
New Delhi, Feb 04: The Finance Ministry has declined to share copies of three reports on the quantum of black money held by Indians inside the country and abroad, saying they were being examined by a Parliamentary panel and disclosing details will cause a breach of privilege of the House.
These reports were submitted to the government more than four years ago.
The UPA government had commissioned in 2011 the studies by the Delhi-based National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP) and the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), and the National Institute of Financial Management (NIFM) in Faridabad.
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Replying to an RTI query, it said the study reports of the NIPFP, NCAER and NIFM were received by the government on December 30, 2013, July 18, 2014, and August 21, 2014, respectively.
"The reports and government's response to it have been forwarded to Lok Sabha secretariat for placing them before the Standing Committee on Finance," the ministry said.
The Lok Sabha secretariat has informed that the same has been placed before the committee which will examine it, it said in a reply to an RTI application filed by this PTI correspondent.
It denied to share the copies of these reports, saying the disclosure would cause breach of privilege of Parliament and, therefore, the information sought is exempt from disclosure under Section 8 (1) (c) of the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
The section bars information, "the disclosure of which would cause a breach of privilege of Parliament". The reports were submitted to the panel on July 21, 2017.
There is, at present, no official assessment on the quantum of black money in India and abroad.
According
to
a
study
by
US-based
think-tank
Global
Financial
Integrity
(GFI),
an
estimated
USD
770
billion
in
black
money
entered
India
during
2005-2014.
Nearly
USD
165
billion
in
illicit
money
exited
the
country
during
the
same
period,
the
latest
report
by
the
global
financial
watchdog
said.
"The issue of black money has attracted a lot of public and media attention in the recent past. So far, there are no reliable estimates of black money generated and held within and outside the country," the Finance Ministry had said while ordering the studies in 2011.
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These estimates were based on various unverifiable assumptions and approximations, it had said.
The Terms of Reference (ToR) for the studies included the assessment or survey of unaccounted income and wealth, and profiling the nature of activities engendering money laundering both within and outside the country.
The studies were to identify, among other issues, important sectors of the economy in which unaccounted money was generated and examine the causes and conditions that resulted in the generation.