Black, bold and bountiful (Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Friday, Aug 13, 2010) V. Venkateswara Rao While there is no official estimate available for the magnitude of Indias black money, unofficial estimates put the figure at around $1.4 trillion (over Rs 70 lakh crore). This amount is more than one years GDP. Most of this money has been stashed away in banks in ‘tax havens abroad over the last 60 years by politicians, industrialists, bureaucrats and middle-men. Transparency International, an international organisation that ranks countries on a Corruption Perception Index (CPI), ranked India 86th out of the 180 countries ranked by it in 2009. The CPI rates countries on a scale of zero to 10, with zero indicating high levels of corruption and 10, low. Indias CPI score was a measly 3.4 out of 10, indicating fairly large levels of corruption. The bulk of Indias black money is stashed away in secret bank accounts in Switzerland. According to data provided by the Swiss Bankers Association, (but not confirmed by Swiss authorities), India has more black money than rest of the world combined. India tops the list with almost $1,456 billion in Swiss banks, followed by Russia $470 billion, the UK $390 billion, Ukraine $100 billion and China, with $96 billion.
Posted on: Fri, 31 Jan 2014 06:54:55 +0000
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