Whitening of Black Money in Budget : Death Blow on Citizen’s Morality

Introduction :
In the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (4th Edition) Black money has been defined as “Income, as from illegal activities, that is not reported to the government for tax purposes”. Even though the existence of black money and its strong influence on economy is a reality, in almost all countries of the world there prevails tremendous hatred for it, of course for genuine reasons . The worst suffering countries from black money (mainly from drugs) are Colombo and Mexico. Seven other countries with the same problem are Afghanistan, New Zealand, Russia, Britain, The United States, Iran and Australia. Any primary student of Economics knows what “Black Money” is. In such a situation, if responsible persons like ministers opine that there is nothing like “black and white money”, one has to realize there might be grave reason behind their conviction.

The Indian subcontinent is the region where qualities like ethics, morality, honesty etc. have been practised for thousands of years. As intricate part of this sub-continent, Bangladesh inherits that tradition. Even though the land at times becomes veiled with cloud of evils, truth and honesty has been found to win in the long run. However, the little shining ray of honesty the citizens of this country saw after the fall  of the BNP government in 2007 has once again been blackened due to the  policy of “legalization of black money” in the 2009 budget.

It may be mentioned that parliament members, ministers and even the prime minister of BNP whitened their black money during the regime of the care-taker government. This definitely indicates their level of honesty. However, even this dishonest government did not make any policy that could make (i) the honest tax payers corrupt, (ii) tax collectors dishonest and (iii) the honest investors handicapped beaten by the earners of black money. It is most unfortunate such a policy has been proposed in the 2009 budget by the government led by Awami League, the largest and the most popular political party with the acclamation of earning the liberation of the country.

Very few citizens could imagine that a party with excellent track record could ever formulate such an unethical and dishonest policy. For genuine reasons the policy is now being widely criticised all over the country. BNP, the largest opposition party, however, is not that vocal and the reason is obvious. Even if this policy is withdrawn at this moment, the honest people would not be able to forget the nightmare created by their favourite party by introducing such an immoral policy.

White And Black Money :
In general “white” is treated as a blessings or good and “black” as a curse or bad. When we say black money we mean it bad for two major reasons : (01) The money was earned by (a) illegitimate means or (b) from unethical sources and (02) The earner did not pay the government taxes.

Thus all money earned by the thieves, robbers, miscreants, illegal commission agents, cheaters etc. are (01) (a) type black money. On the other hand, money earned by drug business, adulteration of products, human-trafficking etc. are (01) (b) type.  It is obvious that these are the most hatred type of black money. In almost all countries acts like stealing, robbing, illegal commission earning, cheating, drug business, human trafficking etc. are considered as punishable offenses. Only the insane can think of endorsing and thus encouraging the money earned by such scandalous and immoral ways.

Type (02) black money however, is not that worse. Here the money was earned legally, but then it turned black because the earner did not pay the taxes fixed by the government. Both logic and ethics would say that the earner may be allowed to ‘whiten’ it by paying taxes and of course, fines.

Proposal of the Government :
What the government has proposed in case of whitening of black money in the 2009 budget is known to all. In place of making our own versions and explanations of those let us cite what the newspapers could make out of those. Since the government did not refute these, we can take these to have been corect.

“Showing white money as black makes one gainer “ (Prothom Alo, June 17, ’09). If one declares an earning of 50 lacs then he is to pay 12 lacs as tax. If he declares that he earned the same in illegal ways, and invests the same for purchasing a 100 Sq. meter apartment, then he would have to pay a tax worth Taka 80,000.00 only”.

For a normal human being it is impossible to fathom the level of morality, honesty and integrity of the persons who can formulate such a rule to be applicable in a country. Also it is unnecessary to cite a second example when the first one is so strong. An atom bomb can destroy a city, only one such rule is sufficient enough to tarnish the moral base of a nation.

Inconsistancy in Sayings :
Some of the sayings of the concerned people are so inconsistent that any person with little common sense would disbelieve them. The finance minister opined that he himself does not endorse the idea of whitening black money. He also declared that the prime minister also does not like it. Just think, even though the prime minister and the finance minister do not endorse the idea of whitening black money, still they had to keep that provision. Why ? The reply was “there was pressure”. Which fool would believe that a government formed by a popular party with over whelming majority needs to bow down to the evil agents, where neither the prime minister nor the finance minister endorses the idea ?  The fact is, this statement is not worth believing. Or, if we believe it, then we have to accept that n the country there is an immoral pressure-lobby that can force even the prime minister and the finance minister to do whatever they like.  If this is taken to be true, then the honest citizens should immediately think of leaving the country ruled by such a government.  However, the bright probability is, there was “no pressure”. The newspapers have disclosed the possibility of funding of the ruling political party by the evil agents, and we find no reason to disbelieve them.

Morality Of Whitening Black Money :
There is absolutely no morality behind whitening the miscreants earning in the following situation : (01) Such whitening is prohibited in the constitution of the country. (02) It is against the election agenda (istahar) declared by the ruling political party. (03) It goes against the principle of some of the international agreements signed by the government.

Dr. Zahid Hossain, senior economist of the World Bank in Dhaka recently expressed his opinion on this issue as : (i) This endeavour is unethical, (ii) It is directly against agreements related to anti-money laundering, anti-terrorist, anti-corruption etc. signed by the government of Bangladesh. Dr. Zahid disclosed that from 1976 to date various governments utilized this program about 9 times, in which the dishonest people whitened 18,000 crores, where the government got 1,420 crores as tax.

World Record :
Through 2009 budget the government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh has established a world record. It is well known that dishonest leaders and corrupt bureaucrats at times adopt non-endorsable means for selfish gains. But there is no instance where the elected government carefully formulated rules or kept provisions for creating immoral and dishonest citizens. In Pakistan and Bangladesh we have seen many bad governments. None of them however, were so bad as to spread corruption through government rules. It is most unfortunate that in the 2009-bugdet the Awami League government has done exactly the same. Also they have kept provisions for favouring the immoral and fraudulent people over the honest ones.

Strangest Reality :
The strangest reality in Bangladesh is, after the Budget was declared and the newspapers explained some provisions regarding whitening of black money, the honest people could not believe their eyes. After all the common people of this country believes Awami League to have been a party with principles. But this time they discovered that the endeavour of this government in point of “teaching immorality to the citizens” surpassed those of all the previous governments. This was simply “unbelievable”.  They thought that probably the newspapers explained things “wrongly” and the government would soon clear up the situation. But after the government did not do that, people thought that the government would soon apologize for the mountainous blunder.
They expected to see the resignation or removal of the person(s) directly related with the fault. Still today nothing like that has taken place. Naturally the honest people shudder to think to which hell this government would lead this country in the coming days. In such a situation if any party initiates “agitation for the down-fall of the ruling government” even with their selfish and vested interest, the honest citizens would find genuine reasons to strengthen their hands.

Conclusion :
In the developed country a minister (say, the transport minister) submits resignation after a serious accident, even though the minister himself may not be directly associated with the accident. In Bangladesh the minister directly associated with the ploy for (01) creating the honest tax payers dishonest, (02) making the tax-collectors deceitful, (03) encouraging the earning of black-money and (04) making the honest investors scapegoat in the hands of the dishonest investors is still in power. In such a situation the feeling of “helplessness” of the honest citizens of Bangladesh is easily conceivable. I do not know if they had the same feeling even in 1971, when they were under Pakistani occupation.

Prof. Bijon B Sarma, Head, Architecture Discipline, Khulna University.