Reveal extent of ill-gotten wealth of Indians: Pranab Mukherjee 

New Delhi: A forceful plea for revealing the extent of ill-gotten wealth, held by Indians in the country and abroad, was made by former President Pranab Mukherjee here on Tuesday, saying unless it was done, the economy would suffer and the common people would feel the pinch.

Why reports by three agencies, tasked by me just before I stepped down in 2012 as the Finance Minister to contest the Presidential poll were not made public “the government should explain to me”, he said at the launch of “The Panama Papers” on the Indian end of the probe by three Indian Express journalists of the global probe into corruption by the high and the mighty. “I had doubts about the exact quantum of unaccounted money overseas. Very fictitious figures were rolled out — sometimes not so high and sometimes astronomically high. So I decided to dedicate three agencies to help me study the problem and quantify the amount of money operating here and operating abroad.

“These were the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, the National Council of Applied Economic Research and the National Institute of Financial Management,” he said. They were asked to submit their reports at the end of their two-year tenure. “But I didn’t get the reports because I had resigned. But I’m told the reports have been submitted, but not yet been made public. Why they have not yet been made public, the government should explain to me,” the former President said. “A white paper was published, which gave substantial information about the operation (of black money) and the extent but not the quantum... Those who are operating, if they win... black marketers and foreign exchange manipulators... then the economy fails and the common people feel the pinch,” Mukherjee said. (IANS)

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