Certain political realities are the stumbling blocks to the NDA government’s initiative to bring back black money stashed abroad, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy said on Thursday.
Proposing expeditious action, he expressed the hope that the issue would be resolved in the remaining tenure of the Narendra Modi government. Dr. Swamy, however, said the government had chosen a slow path, setting a time-line for its objectives, and black money was not on top right now in its priority list.
Speaking at a press conference, Dr. Swamy said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was committed to the cause. “All say do not give priority to this. Or this will happen or that will happen. Our Parliament will not run... but the government is doing its work,” 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 the next one year. It requires two-three strong Ministers to do the task.”
Dr. Swamy said the best way forward was to take recourse to the United Nations Convention on Corruption to instruct the tax havens to cooperate. He recalled that he had written to the Prime Minister last October listing six steps through which the government could bring back black money, pegging the amount at about Rs.1.2 lakh crore. In the letter, he suggested an ordinance declaring all illicit wealth stashed away abroad in tax havens as national wealth.
“Under the United Nations Convention on Corruption, each of the countries can be directed to transfer the money back,” he said.
