Change law to stop black money, says Governor

Speaking on Income Tax Day at the Bangalore IT office, the Governor said, “I admit that bad statutes or laws were responsible for the flight of capital from the country”.

Bhardwaj said, for decades, money stashed abroad was used to run business outside the country. “There was no scope to expand in India until liberalisation.”

Liberalisation, according to Bhardwaj, was the best way to expand the financial cake.

“Because of this, we have been able to expand and now we are a welfare state.” He cited the example of Germany, which also faced a lot of problems with regard to taxation.

“However, after it liberalised its tax regime, it has been able to improve the situation considerably.”

He also called for more tax reforms and simplification of tax law. He called for a review in the tax code, and remove the requirement for salaried employees to file their returns.

On the campaign by Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev on the stashing of black money abroad by Indians, Bhardwaj lashed out at them and asked, “What is the expertise of (social activist) Anna Hazare to talk about black-money or that fellow... ‘sadhu’ Baba Ramdev?”

He also said it was ultimately a bilateral matter between country to country.

“The Government can ask information on black money from country to country in a mutual assistance programme,” he added.