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Editorial Posted On Wednesday, March 10, 2010 | The Govt should not submit to any kind of pressure from the affected lobbies but stick to what their collective wisdom earlier legislated upon in the over-all interest of the nation's welfare and alleviating the problems of 'aam admi'- RK Kutty
Apart from the price rise issue what mostly haunts the UPA dispensation these days is the issue of bringing back the black money stashed in tax havens by Indians. The RTI activists, leading politicians and columnists, time and again, are reminding the government to bring out details of the action taken in this regard. Only recently, quoting from the President's address to the joint budget session of parliament, BJP stalwart Lal Krishna Advani has raised this question in parliament also and has demanded a 'white paper' on the action taken. Responding to this, the P.M. informed the House that India has prioritized a list of 20 countries and jurisdictions for negotiation of tax treaty, facilitating exchange of information on ill-gotten wealth. The PM further said negotiations have been concluded with some of them viz Bahamas and Bermuda and steps are being taken for signing of agreements. We have also approached Switzerland for re-negotiation of our tax treaty, so that we can have access to bank information. The PM also said in Parliament that illegal wealth kept by Indians in Tax Havens is USD 140 Billion. That is at Rs 45 for USD it is Rs.6,30,000 Crore [6.3 Lakh Crore rupees]. The economic survey [2009-10] suggests that our GDP at market prices for 2009-10 is Rs 61.64 Lakh crore [Advanced Estimate] This means, slightly more than 10 percent of our current GDP is illegally kept abroad. Though the PM has not given any source for his estimate, but authentic information gathered from the tax havens, by other advanced countries, indicates that India is the top one in five countries including the US, UK, Russia and others that have siphoned off sizable amounts in tax havens. Interestingly, other than the main Swiss tax haven - USB, new secret tax havens are now being operated upon. Even in the United States, the pressure to bring out more details from Switzerland is reduced considerably, as the defaulters even over-powered legally the Swiss banking authorities. Under such circumstances, instead of unilateral approach, the affected countries may join together and re-negotiate the Swiss authorities jointly that would bring forth some tangible results.
The other thorn that is now hurting the UPA more stringently is the demand for an amendment in the RTI Act. While the Prime Minister is under tremendous pressure from the upper Judiciary to exempt it from the RTI's purview and he even asked the DoPT to bring out such an amendment, the UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi is being pressurized by the RTI Activists, mostly the NGOs, not to bring any amendment to water down or exempt anyone from the RTI' Act. It is reported that the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative's Venkatesh Nayak recently said the government was not being honest in its intention. The government had promised that it would identify non-strategic areas for disclosure and would improve on proactive disclosure. "The government has not kept either of its promises. If it wants to amend the Act, it should put all the information in the public domain. We will be raising this issue at the highest levels," Nayak added.
Among the amendments under consideration include denial of information on the grounds that the appeal was "false or vexatious", non-disclosure of file noting, referred to as discussions before a decision is pending, and exemption for the judiciary. Further, Nikhil Dey of MKSS said there was no possible justification for amendments to exclude the judiciary and the office of the Chief Justice of India. "It is very strange that the courts would want to be kept out of the purview of the Act," Dey further added that since all decisions under the RTI Act came under judicial review, additional exemptions were not necessary.
Association for Democratic Reforms' Anil Bairwal said there were indications that the government was amending the Act to "protect" some people rather than strengthening it. "The perception that the government wants to save some people has left activists with a bitter feeling. There seems to be no effort to strengthen the legislation," he said.
The activists had met Sonia last year to press home the point that there should be no changes in the Act. Activists said the government appeared under pressure from the judiciary to bring some hasty changes. Incidentally, the Delhi HC's full bench had rejected Supreme Court's plea to keep the office of the Chief Justice of India outside the ambit of the Act. The SC only has up to March 12 to appeal against the order.
In fact, the government's move was thwarted in October 2009 after a meeting of DoPT minister Prithiviraj Chavan with state information commissioners displayed a distinct lack of enthusiasm for amendments to the Act. The proposed amendments included exclusion of Cabinet papers and inclusion of a clause to penalize "frivolous and vexatious" appeals.
With RTI campaigners pushing for status quo, the DoPT secretary was forced to concede that changes would only be made after a public consultation. Apart from these, one cannot also overlook the brutal killings of certain RTI Activists in Pune recently. The UPA government, therefore, look into it very cautiously as the RTI has turned a tool in the hands of the common man to bring the crooks, corrupt and the fraudulents to book. Needless to mention that in the State of Madhya Pradesh, consequent to the raiding of premises and unearthing of assets of one senior IAS couple, the bureaucracy is reportedly non-coperative and the effort of the CM to appease them too attracted adverse criticism from the alert public. It is, therefore, quite imperative that the Govt. should not submit to any kind of pressure from the affected lobbies but stick to what their collective wisdom earlier legislated upon in the over-all interest of the nation's welfare and alleviating the problems of 'aam admi'.
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Sunday, August 01, 2010