Whitening the black money
Sunday, 19 April 2009
Ruhi Murshed
CHAMBER bodies in the country have made specific proposals for enabling the holders of the so-called black money to whiten the same. The Jatiya Sangshad (JS) standing committee that examined the issue, also give a positive nod to this whitening process. Thus, the move to whiten black money is apparently acquiring a momentum and there is a possibility that this facility may be given in the country's coming national budget for the next fiscal year. Revenue is falling, the prospects of adequate foreign aid receipts are in doubt and the current slowdown in some sectors have pointed to the necessity of tapping this large source of financing for the economy.
Notwithstanding the opposition from moralists and legalists, the advocacy for giving opportunities under the specially difficult period faced by the economy to whiten black money, merits consideration. But allowing the black money to be made white with no strings attached, is not at all desirable or acceptable. In the past, the government allowed whitening of black money only after taking a part of the declared money in taxes. This practice helped the government to mop up some resources and also to spend the same, without any accountability, into unproductive areas. Thus, there was hardly any justification of such whitening as it played no significant role in the productive sectors of the economy.
This time, the chamber bodies as well as the JS committee, have suggested to the government to issue bonds against receipts of black money and to mandatorily channel the monies received through the sale of such bonds into industrialization, investment operations and employment generation. The opportunity to whiten black money would then be helpful for the economy, and better than only allowing the practice for the government to raise resources for unproductive expenditures.
Some people say that an amount of some two thousand billion takas in black money could be available for whitening. This amount, if properly and productively utilised in the formal sectors of the economy, can bring about a great deal of benefits for the economy as a whole.
The challenge is to whiten black money to give a new lease of life to productive sectors of the economy. If this can be successfully accomplished, then the protests of the legalists and moralists will not carry much water.
And one question remains unanswered about the so-called 'black money'. Are not those having income above the tax-exempted limit, but not filing their annual tax returns, holding 'black money'? Is not their entire asset holding, remaining undeclared, black? Certainly, the number of such individuals in this country is very large, as only about 0.65 million people in Bangladesh pay income taxes! Is this situation acceptable?
CHAMBER bodies in the country have made specific proposals for enabling the holders of the so-called black money to whiten the same. The Jatiya Sangshad (JS) standing committee that examined the issue, also give a positive nod to this whitening process. Thus, the move to whiten black money is apparently acquiring a momentum and there is a possibility that this facility may be given in the country's coming national budget for the next fiscal year. Revenue is falling, the prospects of adequate foreign aid receipts are in doubt and the current slowdown in some sectors have pointed to the necessity of tapping this large source of financing for the economy.
Notwithstanding the opposition from moralists and legalists, the advocacy for giving opportunities under the specially difficult period faced by the economy to whiten black money, merits consideration. But allowing the black money to be made white with no strings attached, is not at all desirable or acceptable. In the past, the government allowed whitening of black money only after taking a part of the declared money in taxes. This practice helped the government to mop up some resources and also to spend the same, without any accountability, into unproductive areas. Thus, there was hardly any justification of such whitening as it played no significant role in the productive sectors of the economy.
This time, the chamber bodies as well as the JS committee, have suggested to the government to issue bonds against receipts of black money and to mandatorily channel the monies received through the sale of such bonds into industrialization, investment operations and employment generation. The opportunity to whiten black money would then be helpful for the economy, and better than only allowing the practice for the government to raise resources for unproductive expenditures.
Some people say that an amount of some two thousand billion takas in black money could be available for whitening. This amount, if properly and productively utilised in the formal sectors of the economy, can bring about a great deal of benefits for the economy as a whole.
The challenge is to whiten black money to give a new lease of life to productive sectors of the economy. If this can be successfully accomplished, then the protests of the legalists and moralists will not carry much water.
And one question remains unanswered about the so-called 'black money'. Are not those having income above the tax-exempted limit, but not filing their annual tax returns, holding 'black money'? Is not their entire asset holding, remaining undeclared, black? Certainly, the number of such individuals in this country is very large, as only about 0.65 million people in Bangladesh pay income taxes! Is this situation acceptable?