Fight risk
Nayem Islam attique
Prime Minister Monmahon Singh is a harassed man today.
Despite his impeccable honesty and integrity of which there are few parallels
in today’s South Asian politics-his government has now been coming under
increasing attack from not only the opposition parties but also the Supreme
Court of the land. The allegations
of rampant corruption involving some of his
ministerial colleagues in addition to his manifest inability to make any
headway with regard to the huge amount of black money lying hidden in the Swiss
banks and tax heavens have raised a fundamental question about his style of
governance in less than two years of the UPS’s second regime honest personally?
Or is it not also his duty to punish and bring to book all those offenders who
have been looting and plundering this country with impunity for years together?
According to the Indian Supreme Court, the back money stashed away in foreign
banks is not just a case of tax evasion, but a mind boggling crime amounting to
theft and plunder of national wealth. The indictment of the highest Court
taking keen interest in the case of corruption, the government is now left with
no choice but to become proactive in their efforts to recover the enormous
wealth hidden abroad. In their latest report called The drivers and dynamics of
illicit Financial Flows from India
1948-2008 the US
think tank Global Financial integrity estimates that tax evasion, crime and
corruption have moved gross illicit assets worth US$462 billion. The report
also notes that the faster rate of economic growth since economic reform
started in 1991 led to a deterioration of income distribution, which led to
more flows from the country. Moreover, the poor state of governance reflected
in a growing under ground economy which in turn has fuelled more transfers of
illicit capital from India .
The analysis is caste in terms of a pre and a post reform period spanning a
total of 61 years since independence. More than anything else, the report
clearly demonstrates that these illicit out flows contribute to the stagnating
levels of poverty and ever widening gave between India

‘s rich and poor. The primary
report findings include (a) from 1948 through 2008, India lost a total of $213 billion
in illegal capital flight. These flows were generally the product of tax
evasion, corruption bribery, kick backs and criminal activities (B) the present
value of the flows is at least US $462 billion. This is based on the short term
US
Treasury bill rate as a proxy for the rate of return on assets. (C) India‘s
aggregate illicit flows are more than the twice the current external debt of
the US, $ 230 billion.