Day 2 of Advani’s Jan Chetna Yatra

BJP leader LK Advani on Wednesday said he was ridiculed by the Congress for raising the black money issue.

Addressing the press at Patna’s Gandhi Maidan, Advani said the UPA government has failed to tackle the black money issue.

While saying the issue never been pursued previously, the BJP leader demanded that the government reveal the names of Indians who have stashed black money in foreign havens.

He added that the opposition NDA will benefit from UPA’s poor performance in the next elections.

Advani was speaking on day two of his Jan Chetna Yatra which he started from Sitab Diara village in Bihar yesterday. From Patna, the senior BJP leader who has undertaken five rath yatras in the past will today move to Danapur and then to Ara and Buxar before entering Uttar Pradesh.

Advani overnight stayed in Bihar’s capital Patna. Advani today also said that he had not seen such a reception to any of his previous yatras as the one witnessed in Bihar.

The BJP leader’s Jan Chetna Yatra will take him through 100 districts in 38 days - and hopefully closer towards power in the next general election.

On Tuesday, he called for a "brighter India" free of corruption. He further asked people to take an oath that they would oppose graft and rising prices.

He also said yesterday that his party will force the government to bring back illegal money stashed abroad.

Political analysts feel that Advani chose popular themes like corruption and black money for his sixth rath yatra to avoid any controversy, as during his 1990 campaign for a Ram temple at Ayodhya.

Advani has since been on five similar campaigns for varying causes, but none as successful as the Somnath-Ayodhya Ram Rath Yatra.

The public awareness campaign will see Advani cover about 300 km a day in his special rath, a modified bus.

Baba Ramdev will start long 'yatra' against corruption today

Yoga guru Baba Ramdev will embark on "a 1,00,000 km long yatra" on Today from Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh to awaken people about corruption and black money.

Ramdev paid rich tributes at the samadhi of Rani Laxmi Bai on arrival here today. Then he left for Jhansi.

The Yoga Guru told reporters on this occasion that there were "two kinds of people in this country, honest and traitors".

He claimed that all honest people were with him in his fight against corruption and black money.

Aim of the yatra was to awaken people on the issue of "Rs 4,00,000 crore black money stashed in the foreign countries", he said.

The yatra will end in Prayag, Uttar Pradesh. When asked whether he feared that Centre would deal with yatra the same way it dealt with his agitation in Delhi, Ramdev said the government had learnt its lessons, and would not repeat the Delhi act.

The fight against the corruption was like a "religious war" to him, he said.

Amnesty scheme on cards for black money

The finance ministry is devising a voluntary tax disclosure scheme that could provide amnesty to people who have stashed unaccounted money in tax havens and other jurisdictions abroad by charging them a "levy".

Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, after a meeting with industry captains recently, activated a committee on black money set up last year to work out a scheme on voluntary disclosure. This scheme will allow corporates and others who have maintained secret accounts in foreign countries to declare their unaccounted wealth and bring it back into the economy after paying a "levy".

Sources said devising an amnesty scheme was one of the demands of industry captains who had met the FM last month. Those present in the meeting included Ratan Tata, Anil Ambani, Anand Mahindra, Y C Deveshwar, N R Narayana Murthy, G M Rao, R P Goenka and Shashi Ruia among others.

Industry leaders, sources said, had argued that such money lying idle could be brought back to the country and invested in infrastructure sector where the government requires funding to the tune of $1 trillion over the next plan period. The government has, so far, received only $100 million through corporate infrastructure bonds from FIIs.

Last year, the government had constituted an expert group to devise a voluntary disclosure scheme. However, it could not be finalized following opposition from several quarters.

Now, the government is equipped with better information on black money stashed abroad belonging to Indians through tax exchange agreements it has entered into with many countries.

In May, the Swiss parliament approved amendments to DTAAs with countries that had recently revised their tax treaties with Switzerland. India was one of the beneficiaries. The two countries had signed a revised DTAA last year after year-long negotiations and the changes will help the government get account details of Indians.

The G-20, of which India holds the position of vice-chairman, and OECD had put pressure on Switzerland and other tax havens to disclose information even if they were only of domestic interest of the requesting state and for the purpose of enforcement of tax laws.

More than a dozen existing DTAAs are up for revision and the government is renegotiating 18 DTAAs with countries with which it has no such treaties. At least 22 tax havens have been identified and Tax Information Exchange Agreements (TIEAs) are being negotiated with them.

India has signed TIEAs with six of them, including Bahamas, Bermuda, British Virgin Island, Cayman Island and Isle of Man. Round-tripping of funds have been reported from many of these jurisdictions.

To gather information on tax evaders and flight of capital, CBDT has set up two overseas income tax units, in Singapore and Mauritius, from where most of the alleged round tripping activities take place. Very soon, CBDT will set up eight more such units in US, UK, Netherlands, Japan, Cyprus, Germany, France and UAE.