Indians have stashed 490 billion US dollar black money in abroad besides black money parked within the country as ‘investments’ in different sectors, according to studies of the country’s top three think tanks.
The studies, conducted by the country’s top three think tanks, said that the money stashed inside the country in different sectors like real estate, mining, tobacco/gutka, bullion, films and education.
The unaccounted wealth held by Indians outside the country till 2010 could be as high as $490 billion, said the think tanks-- NIPFP, NCAER and NIFM—in a report.
This was part of a report of the standing committee on finance tabled in Lok Sabha on Monday, reports TOI.
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 premier institutes 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 United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regime.
The National Institute of Public Policy and Finance (NIPFP) has estimated illicit financial flow out of the country during 1997-2009 in the range of 0.2 per cent to 7.4 per cent of Indian GDP.
The National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), 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 (NIFM) found the total illicit outflow from India (1990-2008) at 216.48 billion US dollar.
The illicit outflow from the country was on average 10.0 per cent 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.