It is new that one hears about Black Money running a parallel Economy in India.
It assumes such proportions that The Central Board of Direct Taxes The Voluntary Disclosure Scheme on June 18, 1997. It continued till December 31, 1997 and it netted a revenue of Rs 7800 Crore to the Government of India.
In January 2011 , there were reports that The amount in the Swiss Banks was in the order of $ 14400 Billion !
The recent information from Kejriwal of IAC is that the amount of black money of 700 Indians, lying in Swiss Banks is 5000 Crore which is very close to the Revenue netted by The Government under Voluntary Disclosure Scheme.
Sample the Finance Ministry’s White Paper on Black Money.
”
A chain Email, which first started circulating on the Internet in early 2009, states that Indians have
more money in the Swiss banks than all other countries combined. It claims that as per a Swiss Banking
Association report in 2006, bank deposits in the territory of Switzerland by nationals of a few countries are
as under: India, US$1456 billion, Russia, US $470 billion, UK, US$390 billion, Ukraine, US$100 billion,
China, US$96 billion.
2.6.2 It is now evident that there is no organization by the name of Swiss Banking Association,
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although
there is a Swiss Bankers Association (SBA). On 13 September 2009 Zeenews.com reported a statement
from James Nason, Head of International Communications of the SBA, in which, referring to figures being
quoted based on the alleged SBA report, he asserted that the SBA had never published any such report
and that the story about Indian deposits was a complete fabrication. Thus these figures appear to be a
figment of the imagination and the email circulating them baseless and mischievous in intent.
2.6.3 Another report which was circulated in the media stating that Indian nationals held around US$ 1.4
trillion abroad in illicit external assets was based on the 2008 report of Global Financial Integrity (GFI),
‘Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Countries: 2002-2006’. In its November 2010 report, ‘The Drivers
and Dynamics of Illicit Financial Flows from India: 1948-2008’, however, it accepted on page 9 that the
back-of-the-envelope method used to derive the figure was flawed – the figure was based on GFI’s estimated
average illicit outflows of US$ 22.7 billion per annum (over the period 2002-06) multiplied by the 61 years
since independence and it is erroneous to apply annual averages to a long time series when illicit flows are
fluctuating sharply from one year to the next.
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2.6.4 It is however useful to mention here one estimate of the amount of Indian deposits in Swiss banks
(located in Switzerland) which has been made by the Swiss National Bank. Its spokesperson stated that at
the end of 2010, the total liabilities of Swiss Banks towards Indians were 1.945 billion Swiss Francs (about
` 9,295 crore). The Swiss Ministry of External Affairs confirmed these figures when a reference was made
by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs to them. Since the information was publicly available on the
website of the Swiss National Bank, the figures of earlier years were also taken and are tabulated in
Annexure Table 1. ”
http://finmin.nic.in/reports/WhitePaper_BackMoney2012.pdf
Note that the Government is keen on discrediting the figures on Black Money.
Yet it also states that Black money constitutes between 19-21 5 of GDP.
GFI estimates are as under.
India occupies the pride of place among developing countries as the Fifteenth among the Top Twenty countries of Illicit Fund flows.
Where does this money go and Which Institutions are responsible?
The Government admits it knows the Sources and has the mechanisms in place.
Obviously the Political will from all the parties are absent.
http://finmin.nic.in/reports/WhitePaper_BackMoney2012.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voluntary_Disclosure_of_Income_Scheme
Firstpost.com contains an excellent article on this subject.
Ramanisblog 
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