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SHRI RUPCHAND PAL : I know all these things because you told us something some time.

We know all these things. I raised this issue that falsification of accounts is a cognizable offence, but to their wisdom - the supporters mostly belong to that section - they just did not agree with me and said "No, how can it be that falsification of accounts is a cognizable offence?" I said "if you go to that level, you will find out." I had repeatedly been saying two or three things.

I am giving you only one example because he had been the Finance Minister at that time also when Amnesty Scheme VDIS was introduced in 1997. During the course of examination, I asked "What is the amount declared?" They told that it was Rs. 33,000 crore or something like that. I also asked how much tax was deposited. They also told that more than Rs. 9,000 crore were deposited as tax. I asked "How many people did not pay even a single paisa as income tax even after enjoying the whole scheme?" They said that it could not be divulged because that was one of the provisions of the VDIS. In such a way, one after another, whenever I wanted to go deep into the source of black money, generation of black money, parallel economy and how it is destroying the whole structure, I could not get the answer. The well-intentioned schemes are being destroyed by the parallel economy. The idea is that India is a very prone area for operations of drug money, hawala money and terrorist money. Particularly in the border areas, there have been cases where it was detected that international terrorist groups and drug operators have been using certain parts of India and certain sections of Indian people as conduits and taking advantage of the lacunae in the system and lacunae in the laws.

So, I had been insisting that money-laundering is a very grave cognizable offence and there should be some deterrence. If one is caught for the offence of money-laundering and using that money for sensitive purposes, what is the punishment? You may say that the judicial system is such that it all depends on how Judiciary is acting. We know how Judiciary is sometimes going beyond its jurisdiction. We have a very recent case in mind where what should have been taken into consideration by the Legislature only was being taken as an area of consideration by some other organ of the Indian State. That is a different question. What I want to emphasise is that while I welcome the measures, the amendments that have been proposed here, I would say that the generation of black money, unearthing black money, unaccounted money, parallel economy, drug money and terrorist money is a matter of global concern.