The Standing Committee on Finance has shied away from estimating the quantum of black money in and outside India, saying that different methods by various agencies are yielding vastly differing figures.
The Standing Committee relied on three institutes — the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, the National Institute of Financial Management and the National Council of Applied Economic Research — to come up with their estimates of unaccounted income in the country. The three estimates varied significantly, ranging from 7-120% of the GDP.
“It appears that the reliable estimation of unaccounted income and wealth inside and outside the country is a difficult task. This inference is validated by the widely varying estimates of the unaccounted income arrived at by these three institutes,” the report said. “The Chief Economic Adviser has opined that there is no scope for arriving at a common estimate of unaccounted income by combining estimates from the three reports.” The report quotes Revenue Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey as saying that “there is a lack of consensus regarding the most suitable method in the Indian context.”
The Standing Committee enumerated the various steps taken to curb the generation of black money. The report said the paucity of time and the limited number of stakeholders that could be examined meant that the findings should be considered only preliminary in nature.
“In the meantime, the Committee would expect the Ministry of Finance (Department of Revenue) to continue their efforts with greater vigour to unearth and bring to book unaccounted income/wealth both within and outside the country, including follow-up action on the seven reports of the Special Investigation Team constituted on black money as well as the three study reports on estimation of unaccounted money,” the report said.
