Arun Jaitley maintained in RS that bringing back black money stashed abroad was a procedure which would take time. Arun Jaitley maintained in RS that bringing back black money stashed abroad was a procedure which would take time.

An entire election campaign was centred on this issue. Till some months back, the previous Congress-led UPA government was stonewalling attempts by a resurgent BJP-led Opposition to corner it on the issue of black money stashed abroad. On Wednesday, the Congress led the Opposition’s attack against the BJP-led NDA government in both Houses for failing to bring back black money or reveal the names of those holding illegal accounts abroad.

It was the UPA government which had earned the wrath of the Supreme Court, as it was reluctant to disclose details provided by foreign governments on the issue. The UPA government even tried to get the SC to disband the Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up by the court in 2011, following which the bench led by current Chief Justice of India H L Dattu took the government to task for “doing nothing” to retrieve black money from foreign tax havens “except for filing a report in a sealed cover in the last three years.”

All this came handy for the BJP in its Lok Sabha poll campaign.

Today, however, it was the turn of the Congress to seek payback, as it attacked the NDA government for failing to do what it was loath to do when in power.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley maintained in the Rajya Sabha today that bringing back black money stashed abroad was a procedure which would take time. “We have done more in 100 days than what other governments had done… You may have no satisfaction about what we have done in 100 days… But we have done more than any other government has done. We have done a lot,” he said. In the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls, the BJP had promised to get back the black money within 100 days. The Opposition has since targeted it for failing to keep its poll promise.

When Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge accused the BJP of having “misled” the country on the issue today, one could have been forgiven for thinking it was BJP leader L K Advani speaking in the same House three winters ago — December 14, 2011 to be exact.

”A hundred days are gone… It is 180 days now… I want to know where is the Rs 15 lakh each in our accounts (as promised by the BJP after retrieving the black money)?” he said.

While moving an adjournment motion in the Lok Sabha on December 14, 2011, Advani had said something similar. “The government (UPA-II) in the past had stated that it would start working on this issue within 100 days, but as many as 700 days have passed by. I would, therefore, earnestly request the Minister of Finance to present entire details and facts pertaining to black money before the Parliament,” he had said.

”I hope that the Minister of Finance (Pranab Mukherjee) would explain in detail on these two counts — money deposited illegally in foreign banks and action taken in the matter… I do hope that after today’s discussion, the government would reaffirm to the Parliament that it would reveal all the names. There is no need to hide anyone’s name,” Advani had said.

“The question is not whether to disclose the names but how and when to disclose them… We have to disclose the names in a very prudent and thoughtful manner”. This could well have been Pranab Mukherjee’s response to Advani’s jibe then. However, these words came from Jaitley today.

Jaitley today cited confidentiality clause in 92 Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements (DTAAs) with various jurisdictions, except Romania, for not disclosing information on foreign account holders.

Mukherjee had sounded almost the same caution. “The instrument, which is available to us, is Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement. We have 82 Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements… In many countries, tax evasion and tax avoidance, unless there is a fraud, are not crimes. This issue was debated in the international forum and our Prime Minister very strongly pleaded for an automatic exchange of information. Both GFI and OECD have recognised that India is one of the three fast moving countries in the matter of Double Taxation Agreement… Even with Switzerland, we have completed the agreement. But no country of the world got information from Switzerland through the legal treaty retrospectively. Everybody got prospectively,” he had said.

On May 21, 2012, in the aftermath of a white paper presented by Mukherjee, BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu had said: “It is totally disappointing. The information that was expected from the government about the quantum of money, the names of persons, and the action taken to recover the money, none of these have found place in the white paper. Then what is it? It is an empty paper, it has no information…”

On Thursday, these words may well be spoken by a Congress leader like former Law Minister Veerappa Moily.

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