By Daya Sagar
To be brief blackmoney / unfair-wealth is created out of the theft made on direct & indirect taxes to be collected by the government as well as theft on the public expenditure that is made by the government through its machinery;through the unfair gratifications / fee collected by government officials for rendering even due services (what to talk of illegitimate favours) as well as by some of the service providers in the private
sector.
For last nearly three decades leaders including Narendra Modi have been quoting former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi having said that the money use efficiency of the state expenditure is just 15% ( 85 paisa out of every 100 paisa spent by government does not meet the public cause it is meant for) but all these years no one has tried to even question and correct the government machinery with needed seriousness since had it been so Modi would not have been forced to calling back almost whole of the currency (86 % of the total value in circulation) with a single time stroke worth facing management problem of such a large unimaginable magnitude that was to result out of near total demonetizing of the currency in so vast a country like India. Let us hope the Prime Minister has such like action in his basket to follow.
No doubt the present action of the government is to lay hands on the existing black money hoarded in cash only (many be not more than 5 % of total generation ) and many fold of the black money generated over the last many years stands converted into capital goods and assets . It would not be that easy for the government to lay hands effectively on the ‘capitalised black wealth’ in a democratic system that India has and with the ‘working’ hands that are in place. But still it could be said that present government has shown some courage worth looking into the eyes of the “corrupt” order and action as has been dared by Narendra Modi-led government must be appreciated hoping that Prime Minister will focus more on correcting the government machinery that could be equally ( rather more ) could be held responsible generation of black money through corrupt practices.
The new Taxation Laws (2nd Amendment) Bill 2016 that has been passed by Lok Sabha on 29th November includes levy of Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan cess @ 10% of the undeclared money but declared before 31st December 2016 and also has a provision for parking with the government another 25% of the amount declared under the scheme for a period of four years @ 0% interest to be used for improvement of irrigation, housing, toilets, infrastructure, primary education, primary health and livelihood creation. It is very welcome and pious thinking of the government. But in the past too there have been many welfare and developmental schemes like MNREGA, oldage pension , Pradhan Mantri Gramin Sadak Yojna, rural housing and like but what large amounts have been corrupted could be any body’s guess. All these funds are spent by the government machinery and incase the government machinery is not corrected the money collected as penalties would again flow in ‘money drain channels’. With the present demonetisation Modi Ji has sent enough shaking notes to the people . So keeping in view the complexity of the ‘black wealth empires’ already raised and the laws of land in hand it will be better to first lay hands on the “almost” non performing /dismantled government machinery worth making it to deliver truthfully. Had the government machinery worked truthfully surely the volume of the black money generated over the years would not have been to alarming worth going for near demonetisation. To be continued
(Daya Sagar is a senior Journalist and social activist and can be reached at [email protected])
