RIP Black Money!

A series of curbs on black money has had tax dodgers fearing the worst.

- Sarika Malhotra And Goutam Das

They would play hide and seek. A banker, who nowadays is neck deep in work, “restructuring” the black cash of the rich, promises to meet the writers. Then backs out. “It’s hectic today,” he texts on WhatsApp. “We have audit which will continue for the next three days.” His bank, we learn, has fired him after his illegal cash management expertise was discovered. A second money handler agrees to talk on phone and then never picks the call. A businessman says he is running a clean business for the past one and a half years. Prior to that, he would do many things, from hoarding cash to cooking up disputes with investors to close down companies. He is travelling right now. “Can’t talk more about this on phone. Can’t meet.”

By a rare stroke of luck on a rather frustrating day, we manage a meeting with a lawyer. His office is sandwiched between tattoo studios and ‘Cash for Gold’ shops. He has been busy, too. At 4.35 pm, when the meeting is set up, he is still lunching. He has been sleeping in the office; cooking too. A small white statue on his desk has “Sue the bastards” inscribed.

“There is a fear psychosis,” the lawyer says, as we ask him about demonetisation and its impact on black money. His bureaucrat friends, who have property in their wives’ names, are nervous. “North Delhi Municipal Corporation has started issuing a Unique Property Identification Card. Any property transaction from here on would be tracked. And this move might be implemented by other states.” He is, of course, helping them and his clients. Some have been advised to move abroad, and some are buying loss-making companies through back-dated transactions. ‘Entry Operators’ – people who create shell companies – are making a killing. A spurt of land buying in Nepal is being talked about.