India's Black Money Estimated at 10 Percent of GDP
Bangalore: India accumulating illegal wealth is way too common that even children find it as ‘no big deal’, yet it has a contrary effect on the state of the nation. The government commissioned a study last year on assessing black money produced in the country. It was estimated in the report that the illicit wealth is most probably over10 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP)or it could be somewhere above Rs 10 lakh crore, considering the size of India’s economy.
The report is said to be of 1,000 pages which was submitted by the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP) to the finance minister and is yet to be reviewed. It is being decided by the finance minister to analyze the report before presenting it in the Parliament, as informed by sources, reported Pradeep Thakur for TNN.
R Kavita Rao is the head of NIPFP's tax policy and research, who headed the study along with SS Khan, the former director general of income tax investigation. The report has reported black money in sectoral break-ups as in telecom, real estate sector and mining etc.
Further a similar study was last carried out by NIPFP in 1984 at the instance of the finance ministry. The black money generated back then in the country was estimated by NIPFP to be 19 percent to 21 percent of GDP or approximately Rs36,000 crore.
