Reduction of black money by 80 percent: Finance Minister Piyush Goyal on Narendra Modi Government

New Delhi: Union Finance Minister Piyush Goyal responded to the Opposition in Rajya Sabha stating that the deposit of black money in Swiss National Bank has gone down by 80% between 2014 and 2017 since the Narendra-Modi led government came to power.

The Opposition had accused that the government is reluctant towards black money recovery and graft.

Piyush Goyal thoroughly criticized the Opposition's statement saying that such figures published by the Swiss National Bank were randomly quoted by the Indian media without taking into account how they are interpreted.

Goyal further said that some media sources have mentioned that Swiss National Bank's banking statistics show a 50 percent increase in Swiss Bank's liabilities towards India, but the data does not include non-deposit liabilities, inter-bank transactions, the business of Swiss branches in India, etc.

The Government of India had signed a contract with Switzerland on December 21, 2017, to curb black money and both India and Switzerland had started collecting data since January 1, 2018. The data will be shared on an annual basis from September this year.

"This makes relevant information available in India which eliminates the threat of black money and action can be taken against any entity indulging in such activities,” said Goyal.