Former Law Minister, Mr Ram Jethmalani, today asked the Government to produce all documents and correspondence for agreements with various countries to bring back black money stashed away abroad.
Participating in the debate on the General Budget in the Rajya Sabha, the BJP member accused the Government of not disclosing the names of tax defaulters who had stashed their illegal money abroad.
“The talk of democratic transparency is a myth. You have been talking of this for a long time, but have done nothing in this regard,” he said.
Mr Jethmalani said, “Have some belated sense now. Give names .... Don’t say we are trying to recover the tax money. We want to know those tax defaulters,” and hoped they were not the ones ruling the country.
He said he had made inquiries from all Governments and they have said, “We have not imposed any such condition of not disclosing the names.”
Mr Jethmalani said had he been the Prime Minister or the Finance Minister, he would have rushed to Germany and got back the names of those tax defaulters who have their stolen money stashed abroad.
“Whom are we trying to cheat? Those whose guardians you pretend to be...kindly produce the Protocol signed with the Swiss Government last year,” he said.
He said, “Investigations have now revealed that money stolen from this country is to the extent of $1,500 billion and if brought back would enable a tax-free budget for the next 30 years or provide Rs 2.5 lakh to every Indian family.”
Mr Jethmalani also accused various political parties of not providing equal reservation to women. “You are not prepared to give even 30 per cent and the malady prevails among all political parties,” he said.