A novel initiative to deal with the scourge of black money has been suggested by the Confederation of NGOs in Rural India (CNRI), urging the Government to create a cadre of social workers who would work as informants to intimate the authorities about those in possession of unaccounted or black money.
“The Government should announce that a cadre of social workers (informants) will be created all over the country and they will intimate the Government after 31/03/2012, if anybody is in possession of unaccounted or black money. Such informants will be treated as social workers and will be paid 10 per cent of the amount disclosed by the defaulters,” Mr Mohan Dharia, former Commerce Minister and Chairman of CNRI , has petitioned to the Finance Minister in a note submitted for pre-budget consideration for 2012-13.
Releasing the contents of the note, Mr Dharia told PTI that the Government should categorically state that such defaulters will be treated as anti-nationals and will be criminally prosecuted with a punishment of 5 years rigorous imprisonment, in addition to confiscation of all the assets and money belonging to them.
“It is learnt that more than Rs 20 lakh crores of rupees are in the form of black money in India and billions of rupees in Swiss or other foreign banks. With this measure the Government shall have crores of rupees available for development purposes. There cannot be any reason for resorting to deficit financing or any debt now burdening the Government,” Mr Dharia, a former deputy chairman of Planning Commission said.
Special Fast Track Courts (SFTC) should be set up for speedy trials of such corrupt people.
Noting that both the Planning Commission and Central and State Governments have conceded that the gap between the rich and the poor has been widening every day, he said to bridge the gap, the Government should levy luxury tax on all excessive properties held by them.