“Three years after the horrific financial crisis (in 2008), caused by financial fraud,

not a single financial executive has gone to jail, and that’s wrong”- Charles Ferguson.

The above statement is quoted not to defame the decorum of a profession; rather

saved as a connotation of the power of finance and its impact on money, business and

global economy. Its supremacy lies behind in being very similar to a double edged

Samurai sword. Not only can it be used to increase shareholders wealth but also enables

to magically conceal taxable wealth off the government’s watch. The civil society call it

as Black Money, however there exists no black magic where one can cast some

financial spell and make real estate properties and currency notes disappear in to the

thin air.

Black money lies as the fine line of distinction between tax avoidance and tax

evasion, deliberate on their definitions the former entails spotting of loopholes in the

existing taxation system while the later entails digging additional fissures against the

law to escape taxes.

With the advent of globalization and information technology, of course, the

boulevard of Black money has turned to a toll free expressway of a globally integrated

economy and thus keeps on moving in and out of economies without scrutiny. With the

advancement of time various treaties have been signed and regulations implemented

but could not much stop the shadowing of illegal money. Governments falling victim to

such financial catastrophe of black money tried laying spikes on these highways which

of them most often were by passed by tax havens like Switzerland to be least obvious.

Apart from Switzerland many other smaller economies are emerging to shelter

cash and have also designed better financial vehicles to ride smoothly through this dark

alley. Practices like money laundering, is still an ongoing street crime committed not by

the chain snatchers or pickpockets but it is a game of the riches.

Unrestrained outflow of black money can dilute even the most stable of

economies and shall pull it down to necropolis. It is necessary and indispensable to take

measures to break the system which is the integration of many smaller networks taking

roots from a country’s financial system, civil society and legal system to avoid any

future crisis. And to break this system in the broader sense, one needs to identify and fix

the legal rules of this illegal game.

Black Money The toll free expressway of global economies

By

Muzahid Khan Integrated BBA+MBA (Oil & Gas Management), Semester VIII, 2011. University of Petroleum & Energy Studies, Dehradun