Without permission keeping money in abroad an offence: Hegde

BANGALORE: N Santosh Hegde has said India should make keeping money abroad without permission an offence to force other countries to share information on illegal wealth stashed abroad. Welcoming the Budget proposal on tackling the menace of black money, Justice (Retd) Hegde said, “...you got to make having money abroad without permission an offence.” “Then alone the countries, where the money is, are likely to give the information (on Indians who stashed ill-gotten wealth in those nations)”. To tackle the menace of black money, the Budget 2012-13, presented by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, has proposed mandatory reporting of assets held by individuals abroad and re-opening of I-T return fi lings up to 16 years in this regard. But the former Karnataka Lokayukta insisted that these steps, while being welcome, are no “replacement” for a bill on strong Lokpal, which is necessary and “certainly needed”. The Budget has also proposed slapping a tax of 30 per cent on undisclosed money, credits, investments and expenditures, irrespective of the slab of income. Strengthening its efforts to check black money fl ow in the system, the Budget has proposed mandatory reporting for every resident having any assets, including fi - nancial interest in any entity, overseas. The same would be applicable for those having signing authority in any account located outside India. Meanwhile, BJP General Secretary Anantkumar said the Budget would further fuel price rise even as the aam-aadmi was reeling under stagerring infl ation. He alleged that the Congress was misleading the nation by announcing grand Food Security Bill even as there was no provision in the budget for it.