Black money tyranny all engulfing

Needless to say that this policy is patently unprincipled that not only encourages the propensity to acquire black money, it is also discriminatory against those honest people who are having to pay their taxes at a much higher rate than the black money holders.

Apart from the parallel economy driven by black money, the nexus between black money and politics, criminilisation of the society, discouragement of honest business as well as uncontrolled election expenses, are the deleterious impact of black money on the socio-economic fabric of the country. Such a policy has other several long-term consequences also and must be shunned without delay. For one thing, apart from inculcating the culture of black money, which is becoming a norm, primarily because the sources of the money, some of which might originate in sale of illegal weapons and drugs, let alone from under-invoicing and over-invoicing, are not required to be declared. This in effect negates the anti-money laundering effort of the government, the social cost of which again we hardly bother to consider.

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One wonders why the government has been so free with this particular policy. Over the year since 1975, when this policy was first introduced, such a provision has been applied on and off six times over nine fiscal years including the current one. It will perhaps not be far fetched to suggest that the government's policy stems much from internal compulsions generated by the fact that many party members that contribute to the political party coffers do so from the black money that they amass through various underhand deals and illegal income, which they can hardly account for.

We feel that sooner the policy is discarded the better will it be for our economy and politics. The government must not capitulate to the forces of black money.