India’s opposition party leader L.K. Advani sparked a political conflagration with pre-election campaign remarks that India was losing tens of billions of dollars each year in illicit financial outflows, or “black money”. He asserted that the National Democratic Alliance would vigorously pursue recovery of these lost assets if voted into power. With the rolling election now in progress, the issue of India’s missing billions has grown progressively thornier, as both sides vie to take the moral high ground.
Whatever the outcome of the election, India’s problem has broader implications both for the developing world and for efforts by the Group of 20 developed and developing nations to craft an effective post-crisis economic plan for the global financial system.
Official Statement from GFI
WASHINGTON, DC – This time last year the German government was pursuing a campaign to obtain information on 900 of its citizens whose names appeared on a list of secret accounts at Liechtenstein’s LGT bank. Meanwhile, presidential hopeful and then-Senator Barack Obama was pledging to crackdown on tax havens and tax evaders if elected president. The world economy was still in one piece and the Dow was above 10,000.
Just before tax day, here is a depressing number: $356 billion. That is the Congressional Budget Office’s new calculation for how much the financial bailout will cost taxpayers, nearly twice the prior estimate.
Who won’t be helping foot the TARP bill? Tax evaders – but they might not get away with it for long.
WASHINGTON, DC – A unique global coalition of civil society organizations and more than 50 governments was launched today to address the inequalities in the financial system that penalize billions of people. The Task Force on Financial Integrity and Economic Development advocates for greatly improved transparency and accountability in the global financial system. The opacity and complexity of the financial system, enabled by financial institutions, laundering techniques and more than 70 secrecy jurisdictions, is at the heart of the current financial crisis and significantly impedes the ability of poor countries to develop their economies.
WASHINGTON, DC – When G20 leaders meet in Washington, D.C., this Saturday, improving transparency in the financial system must be a priority, says Global Financial Integrity (GFI).
