Taxing tangle

With three think tanks—NIPFP, NCAER and NIFM (National Institute of Financial Management)—in the race to estimate the size of India’s black economy, various figures are once again doing the rounds. There’s NIPFP’s original 21% of GDP estimate of 1985, Arun Kumar’s 35% in 1991 and Global Financial Integrity’s (GFI) 50% in 2008—as compared to this estimated annual generation of black economy, GFI estimated the total stash of illicit assets held abroad is $462 billion. It’s a bit like the estimates of the 2G scam, three or four by the CAG itself in one report and another by the CBI!

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