Government is doing spade work on Black Money issue: FM Finance Minister Arun Jaitly replying to a fellow party MP Aurag Thakur’s question raised in the Loksabha yesterday, said “Government is already communicated with Swiss Bank authorities and trying to get the details of the persons, who illegally dumped black money in it. A special investigation team-SIT constituted for this purpose is looking for all possible ways to bring back the black money. Government has already initiated proceedings against those identified in these cases."

"The process of getting the information about the money dumped in the foreign banks and the names of the account holders is very complicated because of foreign banks and countries rules, regulations and policies. It may take a while, but we will not rest until the money is brought back to country and punish the tax evaders,” said Finance Minister.

He also revealed that there are some Indians legally maintaining accounts in these foreign banks. So, the government has to differentiate between legal and illegal accounts. SIT is working on all these issues simultaneously. Various studies reveal that there is around $462 billion to $1.4 trillion black money dumped in these foreign banks by Indian politicians, industrialists, businessmen and many others.

The amount is very tempting for any government, but there are several hurdles to be crossed to lay the hands on the dump. Unless, the government is really honest with its efforts, it is highly impossible to reach that point.