BJP leader lK Advani on Wednesday urged President Pranab Mukherjee to ensure that the Centre keeps the promises made in a White Paper on the issue of black money last year. In his blog, Advani expressed disappointment over the Government’s inaction on this issue and regretted they have not bothered to even follow up.
“My only regret is that the follow up of the White Paper has been disappointing,” Advani said mentioning that Centre had brought out in May 2012 a White Paper to curb the generation of black money, its illicit transfer to tax havens abroad and secure its repatriation.
The BJP leader has been raising the issue of black money stashed in safe tax havens abroad. The former Deputy Prime Minister is also credited to launch a nation-wide Jan Chetna Yatra focusing on black money, inflation and
corruption.
“I wish to urge Pranab Mukherjee, who is today in a far more exalted position than he was when he presented his White Paper, to ensure that the promise made to the people in this document is fulfilled by Government both in letter and spirit,” Advani said.
The former Deputy Prime Minister also lamented the fact that three institutions tasked to quantify the magnitude of black money have still not submitted their reports. Advani pointed that not only United States or Germany but even smaller ones like Nigeria, Peru and the Philippines have got back their illicitly lost wealth from tax havens.
In 2009, Advani said, Washington forced Swiss banking giant UBS to disclose the names of 4,450 American clients suspected of hiding assets in Switzerland.
“We in India, on the other hand, have seen some reports about names who are supposed to have accounts in Swiss Banks or such other tax havens, but have not heard of even a single paisa illegally stashed abroad having been repatriated to our country,”
he said.
He also recalled his letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on April 6, 2008, where he raised the issue of German government launching a massive probe against tax-evaders and procuring confidential data of thousands of them.