On Jan 10, the Reserve Bank of India released crucial data, that seems to indirectly expose the claims of Modi government on its self-acclaimed "war against Black money".
It is by now well known that much of the black money laundering takes a neat and circuitous route: the black money makes a round trip out of India and back into India, through Mauritius laundered as FDI. Mauritius, Cyprus and Singapore are the destinations for Overseas Direct Investment (ODI), and the same countries are also the source of FDI back into their subsidiaries.
The present government boasts of having concluded treaties with Singapore, Cyprus and Mauritius to avoid "Round Trip" and benami assets etc. If that was indeed the case, the share of FDI from these countries and ODI into these countries would have significantly reduced and the within company transactions should also have come down materially.
The data suggests otherwise, however. Look at the Critical Table 5 and 6 which are part of the officially released RBI Data. Look for the figures of FDI from Mauritius and Singapore for the year 2015-16 and compare these with the similar data for 2014-15
The entire data released by the RBI may be studied here.
It is almost same in the case of Mauritius and more in the case of Singapore and Cyprus in 2015-16 as compared to 2014-15.
Out of total of Rs 19.8 Lakh crore of FDI inflow in 2014-15 into India, 21.9 % was from Mauritus.
In 2015-16 out of the 20.18 lakh crore of FDI inflow, 20.8 % was from Mauritus.
In 2014-15, Rs 1.87 lakh crore was from Singapore and in 2015-16 this amount increased to 2.1 lakh crore in 2015-16.
In the ODI out from India the most preferred destination was again Mauritius and Singapore both in 2014-15 and 2015-16 which accounted from almost 30% of the ODI all put together. Besides, in both these years, 92% of FDI accounted was equity, and not debt, which have become a euphemism for shady dealings in the past and appear to continue in the present.
What is the real meaning of this data?
The time tested black route of laundering of unaccounted money through Mauritius and Singapore does not appear to have shown any reduction over the past two years of the Modi regime.