Inside Story

The hunt for India’s ‘black money’

The government submits 627 names to the Supreme Court in its search for undeclared foreign bank accounts.

The government in India is accusing 627 people of hiding billions of dollars to avoid paying taxes. The list of names was handed over to the country’s top court on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had set up a special team to investigate people with bank accounts abroad. It is a part of a wider crackdown on corruption promised during his election campaign.

Modi’s party had accused the previous government of failing to go after Indians with billions of untaxed dollars outside the country.

The prime minister says that repatriating that money could help develop India. His finance minister is spearheading the efforts to bring the money back home.

There is no exact figure for how much undeclared money has been hidden abroad. But some reports suggest more than $1.4 trillion are stashed in Switzerland.

So, will that money ever be brought back to India? And is Modi’s campaign politically motivated?

Presenter: Mike Hanna

Guests:

Sanjay Hegde – a lawyer at the Supreme Court of India.

Sourav Roy – Asian Affairs analyst.

Chetan Sharma – Senior Financial Journalist and economic analyst.