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Describing the government's White Paper on black money as "disappointing" and a "non-paper", the Bharatiya Janata Party said on Monday it is "like a bikini" as it hides the essentials and reveals only the less significant details.
"This White Paper is in reality a non-paper. It is rather like a bikini as it conceals all the essentials and reveals only the non-essentials," senior BJP leader Jaswant Singh told the media.
The issue of Indian black money stashed abroad has been raked by the BJP time and again both inside and outside Parliament. Party veteran L K Advani had taken out a month long Jan Chetna yatra across the country to highlight the issue.
In the press interaction, Singh said the White Paper has not revealed the quantum of Indian black money kept in tax havens abroad. Neither has the government shared details of steps it has taken to repatriate this wealth.
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"The bank deposits of Indians in Swiss banks have decreased from Rs 23,373 crore in 2006 to Rs 9,295 crore in 2010. The government has not disclosed where this money has gone. Has it come back to India? Or has it been transferred to some other tax haven? Or has it been invested somewhere," Singh asked.
The Opposition has been demanding that the government make all efforts to bring back this money as has been done by countries like the United States, Germany and Ireland, among others.
Singh said the White Paper is also silent on the black money made by illegal sale of arms and armaments, evasions on stamp duty especially in land transactions, and use of such funds in politics.
"This document has several shortcomings. It does not explicitly explain what has been done to deal with black money in arms and armaments," Singh said.He alleged that the generation of black money through stamp duty evasion especially in land transactions has not been revealed.
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