Govt links up top think-tanks for new study on black money

The government on Sunday announced that it has commissioned a joint study by three think-tanks — NIPFP, NIFM and NCAER — to estimate Indian entities’ unaccounted wealth both at home and abroad. HT reports.

The government on Sunday announced that it has commissioned a joint study by three think-tanks — National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP), National Institute of Financial Management (NIFM) and the National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER) — to estimate Indian entities’ unaccounted wealth both at home and abroad.

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The study, work on which has commenced in March, will also profile the nature of activities engendering money laundering and identify important sectors of economy in which unaccounted money is generated.

It will examine causes and conditions that result in generation of unaccounted money, study the methods used to inject these funds into the legitimate financial system.

“The government has commissioned these institutions to get an estimation and sense of the quantum of illicit fund generated and held within and outside the country,” a finance ministry statement said.

The announcement of the study’s commissioning came a day after the government declared that it has set up a committee headed by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) chairman to examine ways to strengthen laws to curb the generation of black money, its transfer to overseas locations and its recovery to bring these back.

Both these announcements came barely a week before the proposed hunger strike by yoga guru Baba Ramdev from June 4 to pressure the government to bring back black money from overseas bank accounts.

The government has proposed a multi-pronged action plan to deal revolving around an array of measures, including amended tax treaties with foreign countries to stem the illicit flow of money in undisclosed accounts in overseas bank accounts.