NEW DELHI: Studies conducted by three premier institutes — National Institute of Public Policy and Finance (NIPFP), National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) and National Institute of Financial Management (NIFM) — have concluded that unaccounted wealth held by Indians outside the country till 2010 could be as high as $490 billion, besides black money parked within the country as ‘investments’ in sectors like real estate, mining, tobacco/gutka, bullion, films and education.This was part of a report of the standing committee on finance tabled in Lok Sabha on Monday. This is the first official acknowledgement of the three government-sponsored studies initiated in 2011 to estimate black money held by Indians in the country and abroad. On a reference from the then UPA government, the three think tanks came out with their own estimates of black money.The reports have not been made public yet, though they were submitted to the government during the UPA regime. The National Institute of Public Policy and Finance has estimated illicit financial flow out of the country during 1997-2009 in the range of 0.2% to 7.4% of GDP. The National Council of Applied Economic Research, however, estimated unaccounted wealth accumulated outside the country by Indians between $384 billion and $490 billion during 1980-2010. The National Institute of Financial Management found the total illicit outflow from India (1990-2008) at Rs 9,41,837 crore ($216.48 billion).Illicit outflows from India was on average 10% of the unaccounted income, it said. “There are no reliable estimates of black money generation or accumulation, neither is there an accurate well accepted methodology for making such estimation,” the standing committee on finance said in its report.It said these estimates were made merely on “assumptions” as there was no uniformity or consensus on the best methodology or approach to be used for this purpose. The standing committee report, tabled on Monday, was first submitted by the panel headed by M Veerappa Moily to the Lok Sabha Speaker on March 28 before the lower House was dissolved ahead of parliamentary elections.The panel noted that the findings were preliminary in nature owing to paucity of time. Only a limited number of stakeholders could be examined by the committee, it said, and recommended examination of more witnesses, including non-official witnesses and experts.