What is Amnesty?
1. Wikipedia: “An official pardon for people who have been convicted of political offenses”.
2. The Free Dictionary: “A general pardon granted by a government, especially for political offenses”.
3. Dictionary Reference: “a general pardon for offenses, especially political offenses,against a government, often granted before any trial or conviction.
“an act of forgiveness for past offenses, especially to a class of persons as a whole”.
Amnesty is not *Pardon*. In Pardon, a person or persons, who are convicted of a crime and are undergoing a sentence, are released after commuting their sentences or are freed of death sentence. In this sense all the above definitions are erroneous. Amnesty derives its origin in Amnesia: The Greek Word that means *Forgetting* or *Oblivion*. Therefore, in Amnesty, there is no question of brining anybody to a trial or of convicting him. Government, or Authority, simply chooses to forget that any crime has been committed. It pretends as if no infringement of any law has occurred.
In India, however, Amnesty means forgetting or pretending or ignoring that any Economic Offences have taken place. India has the distinction of offering FIVE times Amnesty to Economic Offenders. In February 2011, Sukumar Mukhopadhyay, a former member of CBDT held, “In the context of the report "Global Financial Integrity" in November 2010 stating that a huge amount of black money has been stashed in foreign banks under the protection of secrecy laws, talk of retrieving it by introducing a Voluntary Disclosure of Income Scheme is doing the rounds again. Such schemes have been tried earlier in other countries, including the United Kingdom, and five times in India since 1950. Such a scheme is an opportunity for individuals and companies to bring their tax affairs up-to-date”. Last scheme was floated by P Chidambaram in 1997, and his deputy said: “The chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes enthusiastically described the VDIS of 1997 as "a golden chance for tax evaders to become honest"”.
Now Government of India wants to offer another chance to scamsters, fraudsters, evaders, looters, traffickers, gangsters, mobsters, or simply corrupt or dishonest to bring their *Tax Affairs Up-To-Date* and become *Honest*. Only difference is that “Voluntary Disclosure of Income Scheme” has now become “Offshore Voluntary Compliance Scheme”. Like with everything else of Globalisation and Liberalisation, even in this case we want to follow the Best International Practices: “It will be modeled on the lines of the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Initiative run by the Internal Revenue Service in the US”. It is another matter that SIXTH Amnesty is proposed even when FIVE earlier Amnesties have failed to usher in HONESTY or make the TAX AFFAIRS up-to-date.
The scheme proposed says: “Also, the authorities will not insist on the source of the money once it is disclosed voluntarily”. That means Drug money, immoral trafficking money, extortion money, Fraud Money, Scam Money, Corruption Money, Terrorism Money, Counterfeit Scams money, Insider Trading money, et al, are all to be WHITEWASHED. That also means Finance Ministry and CBDT are going much beyond their jurisdiction and brief to legislate in areas that fall under the purview of other ministries and are in the domain of laws not under their scope.
Global Capital knows pretty well how to reward itself whether it is MAKING Laws or when BREAKING Laws. Are there any lessons here for *Corruption Free India* movement?
Disclosure scheme for foreign assets soon
The government is working out the details of a voluntary income disclosure scheme that would offer a window for bringing back undisclosed assets stashed away in overseas tax havens into the country’s financial system. The Offshore Voluntary Compliance Scheme will cover Indian organisations, citizens and non-resident Indians (NRIs), and offer immunity from criminal prosecution and imprisonment, besides lower rates of interest and penalties. Also, the authorities will not insist on the source of the money once it is disclosed voluntarily. But in case the tax department tracks down undisclosed assets through its networks, the holder of the money would face “strong punitive actions, including high penalties, prosecution and even imprisonment”, said a government source.
The last such offer — the Voluntary Disclosure of Income Scheme (VDIS), introduced in 1997 to fight internal black money generation — was an unconventional, but successful one. More than 350,000 people disclosed their income and assets under the scheme that brought in R7,800 crore. The scheme was closed on December 31, 1998. An expert group of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), assigned by the government to curb the generation and transfer of black money abroad and bring the funds back, recommended the new scheme. The source said, “It will be modeled on the lines of the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Initiative run by the Internal Revenue Service in the US.” Under attack by civil society and social activist Anna Hazare for alleged inaction over money stashed away in foreign accounts, the government proposed an action plan, including amendment of tax treaties with other countries.
A multi-disciplinary committee — involving think-tanks such as the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, National Institute of Financial Management and the National Council for Applied Economic Research — has been set up to estimate the quantum of black money generated in India. Earlier, interim recommendations of a BJP task force estimated the amount generated since Independence at $500 billion (about R22.5 lakh crore) to $1.4 trillion (about R63 lakh crore). A recent study by Global Financial Integrity, a Washington-based research group, estimated the current value of illicit money outflow from India at $462 billion (about R2079,000 crore).
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