Back ground:India since independence has started its journey towards the overall development. Throughout the decade several steps have been taken by the government to ease its journey towards overall development. But the journey is not so easy. There are so many obstacles to development; the obstacles are not only economic but also social as well as political.
Our economy is still considered as “DEVELOPING” according to World Bank classification even after 67 years of independence. India with its population of 1210 million in 2011, sharing 17.0 percent of world population, is among the poorest of the economies of the world. There are debates on different obstacles to the Indian economic development.
Now–a-days we generally point out food stuff inflation, low progress in industry and agriculture, huge trade deficit and budget deficit. Inspite of all these we cannot overlook corruption and its dent on the Indian economic development. Indian’s rank in Corruption Perception Index (CPI) prepared by Transparency International (TI), Berlin, is 95 among the 182 countries in 2011. So India is ranked as a highly corrupted country. According to Mr.K.R.Narayanan, former President of India “Sheer opportunism and valueless power politics have taken over the place of principles and idealism, relationship between people, groups and parties …. and corruption is corroding the vitals of politics and our society”. It is a very difficult task to define corruption. In a general sense, it is concerned with “bribery”. But in a development sense, it is concerned with the deviation from the avowed objectives of state.
In this context we have to mention “black economy” which relates to the function of an unsanctioned sector running with parallel to the avowed social objectives. The black economy is a confrontation of legitimate and illegitimate sector. It is hindering the State effort to establish a social order based on equality and justice for all. It was expected in Indian economy – a mixed economy where public and private sector coexist, that both the sector will promote investment and output. Public sector concentrated on the creation of economic infrastructure in the form of roads, railways, irrigation etc., the development of heavy ,basic and defence industries and provision of better education and health facilities whereas rest of the economy was left to be developed by private sector. But with the increasing economic activities after independence the black sector was also expanding and paved the way to emergence of a class which derives its maximum source of power from black money. Black Money in simple terms means cash flow on which no tax is paid. So the operations of black money operators have resulted a “black economy” or parallel economy.The creation of black money has reduced the loss of revenue to the state as a consequence of tax evasion. Also it has resulted in large scale undervaluation of property and in this way black money is being made white. It is also to be noted that a part of black incomes are kept in cash which frustrated the Government effort to control excess demand with the measures of credit control. It is often reported that black money results in fraudulent transfer of fund from India to foreign countries violating the foreign exchange regulation. Also there exists transfer of funds, in order to conceal a transaction of dubious or illegal origin.
Based on various studies on illegal capital parked in the country, Public Interest Litigations were filled in the Supreme Court of India under Article 32 of the Constitution. Consequent to various directions given by the Supreme Court of India various steps were taken by the then UPA Government and one major step taken by the then Government was to put inpublic domain a White Paper on Black Money. After assuming office on 16th May 2014, BJP led government took decision to set up a Special Investigation Team having retired Supreme Court judges as Chairman and Vice Chairman respectively. Since its constitution SIT has submitted reports to the Supreme Court of India.
All these do not necessarily mean that India can not turn the things around. Government of India has taken several steps to combat the menace. Government constituted a committee headed by Justice K.N.Wanchoo to examine the problem of black money. The Committee was to “examine and suggest legal and administrative measures for countering and avoidance of direct taxes”. The committee made valuable suggestions, the implementation of which helped considerably in checking tax evasion. The Wanchoo Committee, in its report in 1971, described black money as a “cancerous growth in the country’s economy, which if not checked in time, will surely lead to its ruination”. Government of India has tried to tackle black money with Amnesty Schemes popularly called Voluntary Disclosure Schemes and Special Bearer Bond Scheme. It is a known fact that these schemes brought meagre amount in government coffer.
It has also initiated reduction of control in 1991 with LPG model;with Rights to information Act for transparency; FEMA 1998 to simplify the law relating to foreign exchange for facilitating external trade and payments and for promoting the orderly development and maintaining foreign exchange market in India; Money Laundering Act, 2002 to prevent transfer of funds in order to conceal a transaction of dubious or illegal origin. International community in recent times has adopted conventions to deal with corruption and money laundering. India has signed and ratified that Convention and made them a part of Indian Law through legislative and administrative measures. The Indian tax laws have been amended a number of times to strengthen anti-tax evasion measures. Inspite of allthese measures, we have miles to go.
On this back ground National University of Study and Research in Law, Ranchi will organise a two-day national seminar on 9th & 10th May 2015 at Ranchi. Research papers are invited from academicians, researchers and any other interested persons to highlight the following themes.
- Black money: Issues and Challenges
- Black Money : Magnitude and Causes
- Black Money and Damages to Indian Economy
- Tax Evasion, Tax Avoidance : Consequences and Enforcement of Laws
- Present Government Policies against tax evasion
- Tax evasion and role of tax heavens
- Double tax avoidance treaty:A way out?
- Corruption: Public Protests and Government preventive measures
- Economic Offences and Prevention of Corruption Act
- Corruption and Public procurement
- RTI Act and Good Governance
- Lokpal & Lokayukt: An Analytical approach
- International Dimensions of Corruption
- Money laundering: Global Concern and Preventive Measures
- Prevention of Money laundering Act : An overview
- Transfer pricing as a Global Challenge
- Role of RBI in combating Money laundering
- Terrorist Financing and Foreign Contribution Regulation Act
Important Dates
Last date for abstract submission 31st March, 2015
Notification of accepted papers 7thApril, 2015
Last date for Registration 17th April, 2015
Full paper submission 24th April, 2015
Instruction for submission
Those who are interested to contribute papers for the seminar should email the abstract of not more than 500 words (in MS Word format, Times New Roman 12 Font and1.5 Line Spacing) at ecoseminar15@gmail.com
The full paper should be within 2500-5000 words
Registration Fee: Demand Draft in favour of ‘Registrar, NUSRL, Ranchi’, payable at Ranchi
| 1. | Single Author | Rs.1500/- |
| 2. | Co Authors (Up to two co-authors are allowed) | Rs.1250/- each |
| 3. | Students | Rs.1000/- |
| 4. | Students Co-authors(Up to two co-authors are allowed) | Rs.750/- each |
Travel
No TA will be provided to the participants.
Boarding and Lodging
On request and availability, accommodation may be provided to the participants.
Address for Sending the Registration Form
Dr. Sabari Bandyopadhyay
Seminar Convenor
National University of Study and Research on Law, Ranchi
At Nagri, P.O. Bukru, Kanke Pithoria Road, Kanke, Ranchi-834006
Jharkhand
REGISTRATION FORM : Registration Form
Knowledge Steez 