Centre says no official estimate of the amount of black money in India

New Delhi: The government has no official estimate of the amount of black money inside and outside India. Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs Anurag Thakur on Tuesday (December 10) replied to a question in the Rajya Sabha that there was no record of the same. 

Thakur was replying to a  question by Congress Rajya Sabha MP Ranjib Biswal who demanded details from the Ministry of Finance regarding black money in India. The question asked the government to state the estimated amount of black money inside and outside the country, as on date. It further also asked the Finance Ministry to provide information or inputs of Indians suspected to have stashed away unaccounted money in foreign banks abroad and their details thereof.

Thakur also spoke about the benefits of demonetisation in his answer and said that it was due to demonetisation that the flow of fake currency in the country was reduced, it also helped in the conversion of non-formal economy to formal economy. Stressing on the increased number of taxpayers in the recent years, he said, ''Nearly six crore peple used to pay tax during 2015-16, but the number has now increased to more than eight crores.''

The Indian cricketer-turned-politician Biswal had asked the Centre to provide information on the steps taken by the government to curb black money in the country. He further asked if the Government has made the names of black money account holders public in the recent past. 

This is the second time when Thakur was seen giving a detailed explanation of the benefits of demonetisation in the Parliament Winter Session. Earlier on December 2, he briefed the Lok Sabha regarding the same.