BOOK REVIEW: ON THE TRAIL OF THE BLACK-Edited by Debroy & Desai

BOOK REVIEW

TITLE: ON THE TRAIL OF THE BLACK Tracking Corruption

EDITED BY: BIBEK DEBROY & KISHORE ARUN DESAI

PUBLISHED BY: RUPA PUBLICATIONS, 2017

PRICE:   Rs.595/- IN HARDBACK

Collusive Corruption & Flouting The Law

This collection   of 16 essays, written by the staffers of Niti Aayog, is called an anthology, as in poetry, by Rupa, its publisher. However, it deals with the cancer of black money, which has penetrated every nook and cranny of the economy.

Indeed, most other countries have a parallel cash economy, but rarely on this scale, or to this extent. This book was published in late 2017, and was probably intended as a set of theoretical prescriptions think- tank style- that is, neither radical, nor controversial.  

Given the goings on in the corporate and PSU banking sector, being revealed in all its shocking and seamy detail, a book like this has suddenly gained greater relevance and topicality.

The brazen diamentaire and disposable pen scams raging like a storm outside, threaten to crash the PSU banking system. It is already reeling from an unprecedented Rs. 10 lakh crores in bad debts, incurred during the preceding UPA rule from 2004-2014.  

But this government is apparently reluctant to act with aggression against the perpetrators. It is awkward and inept when it does, ponderous, busy shifting the blame to expendable minor factotums and the previous dispensation.

The links, for example between the Nirav Modi-Mehul Choksi families and the Ambanis is surely embarrassing. They  have been beneficiaries of collateral free monies running into thousands of crores from the government controlled PSU banks, quite a lot of it in the last 4 years during the currency of this regime. Likewise, there are the Kothari family’s links with the Adanis.

The rot of systemic corruption runs deep. The fountainhead of black money generation in the Indian economy is, of course, the political process. This is explored in an essay by one of the two editors of this book, Kishore Desai.

The elected representatives of the Government of India come to power using truck loads of unaccounted for, tax-evaded cash. While something is being done about it by this administration, particularly in the area of political donations- it is unlikely to prevent massive cash usage coming straight from candidates in future elections too. This, in gross violation of prescribed overall campaign fund limits, let alone the ban on cash for the purpose.

The Real Estate sector can, and does, absorb large tranches of cash.  Again it starts at the political level. Land prices can be manipulated ruthlessly by politicians in power who have the authority to make their fortunes by changing “land-use” norms. They can convert agricultural land around expanding cities for example, valued generally by the acre or hectare, into commercial, residential, institutional land, at the stroke of a pen.

Politicians can renotify pristine areas into new cities, as in the green-field capital of Andhra Pradesh. This turns its land value to be calculated in square yards and even square feet, rocketing up its price.

It is the easiest way for State Chief Ministers and their political parties to accumulate fabulous but unaccounted for wealth in cash. This by simply forming a nexus with builders at the detrimental expense of the original landowners.

Bibek Debroy, one of the editors of this book, smoothly meditates on this outrage, and ways to mitigate it, not, one might add, with very much conviction. He writes on the digitization of land records at greater length than the scandal surrounding CLUs.

Various statistics cited by this book are plainly horrific. Misinvoicing, says one chapter, “cost the country more than $40 billion in 2008”.  So imagine the amount 10 years later in 2018.

On the plus-side, it is more difficult for all except the smallest enterprises, which are exempted, to get away with invoice manipulation, since the advent of GST. It is, amongst other things, a transparent online process for indirect taxation.

Evasion of taxes, gaming of systems, bribery, subversion, forgery, fraud, scamming and larceny are rampant everywhere though. The Prevention of Corruption Act 1988, and its amended version from 2013, is distinguished by its loopholes and has as yet, scalped very few. Likewise the Benami Properties Act with new teeth, which should have garnered perhaps Rs. 100,000 crores worth  by now. So far, the government proudly announces, it has confiscated Rs. 3,500 crores worth.

Executive government agencies, such as the Central Vigilance Commission (CVA), the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the Central Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Central Board of Direct Taxation (CBDT) - even the Intelligence Bureau (IB), the National Investigative Agency (NIA), and the Research and Analysis Win g (RaW), turn in indifferent results, often marked by sub-standard work that doesn’t stand up in court.

The three arms of government- the Executive, the Legislature, and the Judiciary, are also none too efficient.

The Judiciary is not only extremely over-burdened, increasingly biddable with inducements, and slow, but often resorts to copping out altogether by “reserving” its judgements.

The Indian Constitution, probably the longest, most disjointed and complicated in the world, is often subverted in practice and cynically used by rival politicians as a battering ram.

Attempts such as the Lok Pal, the Lok Ayukta, and the Right to Information Act  (RTI), all designed to promote greater accountability in public life, have also not succeeded to any appreciable degree either.

The problem everywhere is the near immunity from being held to account built-in by the permanent cadres of the government, its bureaucracy, as well as the political classes.

It is very difficult, except in theory, for the citizen to do much beyond vote when elections come around, at least as far as the politicians go, and then get out of the way till the next time.

This book helps mildly raise the pertinent issues and the pervasiveness of  the black economy. It is up to the evolution of our education, awareness and democracy however, to lift this country out of the grip of its more feral elements.

For: The Sunday Pioneer, BOOKS

(963 words)

February 21, 2018

Gautam Mukherjee