UPA government not clear on issue of black money: BJP
February 1st, 2011 - 8:57 pm ICT by IANS
Kolkata, Feb 1 (IANS) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Tuesday accused the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government of being unwilling to reveal the names of Indians who have stashed ill-gotten wealth in foreign banks and alleged it was “not at all” serious about recovering black money.”Congress is not clear on the issue of black money. What Pranab Mukherjee has said was nothing new. What is the government doing to bring back this black money? If the black money can be recovered many problems will be solved,” said BJP’s Shahnawaz Hussain.
Last week, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had said $462 billion to $1.4 trillion in black money is estimated to have been stashed abroad by Indians and all steps were being taken to bring it back. But the names of the perpetrators can’t be revealed yet.
“Why is the Congress government not willing to reveal the names of those people who are having foreign bank accounts? What are they afraid of? They are only doing lip service. They are not at all serious about the recovery of the black money stashed in these accounts,” said Hussain.
India has started renegotiating its tax agreements with several countries in an effort to track ill-gotten money stashed in tax havens such as Switzerland.
Asked whether the government has a soft foreign policy approach towards China, Hussain said, “We have always stood by the government in the matter of foreign policy. But we think that we should talk tough and in a firm way on the issue of China.”
Hussain also took a dig at the country’s left parties for softening their stand on the demand of a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe on the 2G spectrum issue.
“This is the nature of the communists. They will first shout on an issue and when time comes they will run away. Now they have softened their stand on the JPC probe,” said Hussain.
The opposition has been relentlessly demanding setting up of a JPC to probe the irregularities in the allocation of the 2G-telecom spectrum in 2008. The government has rejected the demand. This led to the entire Nov 9-Dec 13, 2010 winter session of parliament being washed out.
- Mukherjee to clarify government stand on black money - Jan 24, 2011
- Why is Sonia Gandhi silent on black money, asks Rajnath - Feb 15, 2011
- NDA will soon decide strategy for budget session: Gadkari - Jan 30, 2011
- Black money abroad pegged at $500 bn to $1,400 bn: Mukjherjee (Lead) - Jan 25, 2011
- India's cabinet discusses how to bring black money back (Roundup) - Jan 20, 2011
- 2G scam, Radia tapes, black money cases at apex court this week - Jan 31, 2011
- Cabinet discusses black money issue after apex court rap - Jan 20, 2011
- West Bengal calls for centre-state cooperation on black money - Feb 28, 2011
- 'Can't reveal names yet of Indians with black money abroad' (Roundup) - Jan 25, 2011
- Magazine claims to have list of Indian tax evaders - Feb 04, 2011
- Black money stashed abroad a national plunder: Supreme Court - Jan 19, 2011
- $500 billion black money hidden abroad: CBI (Roundup) - Feb 13, 2012
- No cover up on black money issue: Antony - Jan 20, 2011
- Supreme Court to hear black money issue - Feb 10, 2011
- Ahead of PM's media interaction, BJP ups the ante (Roundup) - Feb 15, 2011
Tags: bank accounts, bharatiya janata party, black money, communists, congress government, finance minister, foreign banks, foreign policy, irregularities, kolkata, lip service, money congress, parliamentary committee, perpetrators, policy approach, pranab mukherjee, progressive alliance, tax agreements, tax havens, trillion