INDIA MUST GET BACK ITS ILLEGAL FUNDS FROM TAX HAVENS
The topic of the Vimarsh this month was 'Tax havens and illegal funds of India' and the speakers were Dr R Vaidyanathan, professor of finance & con troll in IIM Bangalore and Dr Subramaniam Swami, the outstanding economist, thinker, intellectual and columnist. The Vimarsh held on 13th April 09 at 6.30 pm in the premises of Vivekananda Kendra International started in the traditional manner with the chanting of the invocations by Mananeeya Pravin Dabholkar Jt Gen secretary of Vivekananda Kendra Kanyakumari.
Sri Ajit Doval, the honorary director of Vivekananda Kendra International introduced the topic and the speakers. He explained that the tax havens was a matter of great concern among all the nations in the world. India has the largest illegal deposits amounting to Rupees 75 Lakh Crore illegally stashed away in Swiss Banks. This was the prime cause of the impact of global economic recession and all other associated problems which have afflicted us. Due to this massive misappropriation of money, we face a scarcity of funds for various other purposes such as health care, education, civic infrastructure etc. He added that those who are responsible for this colossal embezzlement of the national wealth have plundered us more than our former British colonial masters and the Muslim marauders like Nazir, Taimur, Abdali, Ghori, Ghazni etc. He added that the fact that 50 to 60 % of the illegal Swiss Bank Deposits are owned by Indians and yet there is no national rage on the issue reflects on our unscrupulousness and apathy towards our national responsibility.
Dr R Vaidyanathan explained the problem created by the tax havens in a very scholarly manner and yet at the same time simple enough to be comprehensible to 
laymen. He explained that tax havens are states or principalities which have banks that provide various numerous privileges to the account holders such as unlimited privacy, political asylum etc. It is estimated that there are more than 70 tax havens in the countries like Switzerland, Cyprus, Greece, Australia and numerous other obscure island republics like Virgin Islands,Cayman islands, Channel Islands. These tax havens pose a great danger to the civilized world because the money has not only been deposited there to evade taxes but most of the times the means of acquisition of that money are illegal such as through bribes, kickbacks, criminal and terrorist activities etc. The amounts of illegal money in the some of the obscure tax havens of the world are as follows 1] Channel Islands- 400 million dollars 2] Mauritius{2600 million dollars} 3] Cyprus [1361million dollars 4] Cayman Islands[ 104 million dollars] In the present scenario,when terrorism has become the bane of the world, it can be easily discerned that the level of terrorist activity has become commensurate with the quantum of illegal money hoarded in the tax havens. Moreover the high interest rates prevalent in our nation bring about the permeation of this illegal money back through the hawala channels. According to the International Narcotics Control Strategy Report- Money laundering and financial crimes during 2007-08,the inflow of unaccounted money through the hawala channels was estimated to be 42.6 billion dollars and 40 % of that had originated from criminal activities.
He mentioned that according to Internal revenue services USA on Abusive tax shore avoidance schemes,due to the enormous hoarding of this money in the Swiss banks, the developing countries are losing billions of dollars every year which could have been very helpful in boosting their economy. In the year 2006, developing nations suffered a loss varying from 858.6 billion dollars to 1.06 trillion dollars. India lost 27.3 billion dollars annually in the period from 2002 to 2006 He opined that this problem has been prevailing in our nation right from the Nehruvian era and as the rupee was much stronger against the dollar, a massive exodus of national wealth to the tune of 1.4 trillion dollars occurred then.
He expatiated that the black money in circulation in our nation was much better than the money aggrandized in overseas tax havens as it creates a parallel economy boosting the growth of luxury industries. He added that due to the severe economic recession in the US, Swiss banks were succumbing under the American pressure and they were taking very cautious steps by refraining their overseas banking investment representatives from visiting foreign countries including India. He concluded that India was not a banana republic unlike Liberia or Sierra Leone and when smaller nations like Philippines and Nigeria could recover their national assets from those overseas tax havens, India should certainly be able to do it. India which is presently only an observer of FATA[ Financial action task agenda] should become a full fledged member of it and should take firm steps through financial agencies like IMF on the countries, recovering our national wealth which is estimated to be 1.456 trillion dollars. Otherwise our international image will be severely tarnished.
Dr Subramaniam Swamy brilliantly analyzed the intricate problem of tax havens being faced by our nation and suggested methods for overcoming it. He said that although the Swiss government was ready to divulge the names of all the illegal account holders in Switzerland, there was no initiative being taken by Indian government. He alleged that a number of top ranking political leaders of the congress party were involved in this scandal, which was revealed by the famous journalist Alma Alwaritz in the issue of the magazine 'Schweitzer'. He further expounded how the top ranking congress leaders used to receive illegal payments through Swiss banks from Saddam Hussein, KGB etc. He expatiated that various countries like Germany had imposed pressure on the Swiss bank authorities and acquired access to all the people having illegal bank accounts there. He insinuated that one of the topmost leaders of the congress party was arrested in US for the illegal possession of 160000 dollars in cash. Only when there was a diplomatic intervention by high ranking Indian leaders, he was released by the FBI. The huge deposits possessed by the terrorists in the Swiss banks enable them to purchase participatory notes in the international finance markets and manipulate booms and recessions there, which will lead to detrimental consequences worldwide.
He further explained that the black money can not be harnessed for investment purposes and will only lead to proliferation of luxury industries and dissipation of the national economic wealth. He suggested a solution which could be adopted by the Indian government to tide over this problem- nationalize all the accounts held by Indians in Swiss Banks, with the assurance that if the account holder could prove the legitimacy of the wealth possessed by him there, it would be reimbursed to him. He further added that a large number of Indian politicians had illegal tax havens in Switzerland and elsewhere, due to which the Indian government was showing reluctance in imposing pressure on the Swiss Bank authorities in acquiring the names of the bank account holders there
Sri Ajit Doval in his concluding address, exhorted the audience that they should have a gigantic national will and only then they can eliminate these kind of problems faced by the nation. The Vimarsh came to an end with the vote of thanks by Sri Ajit Doval.
