Modi urges chartered accountants to help unearth black money in the economy

Advice to CAs

Reiterating the tendency of tax evation among Indians, Modi said it is disheartening that only 32 lakh Indians have declared over Rs 10 lakh income, despite crores of people being high-end professionsals like CAs, doctors and engineers.

“When my government announced demonetisation in November last year, all the CAs cancelled their vacations to work for their clients. They worked post-midnight. I do not know whether they worked for the nation or their clients,” said Modi, indicating that his government would take action against those professionals who had helped corrupt companies hide their black money.

Warning that the process of data mining post-demonetisation had not ended, the PM said that the government had yet to take any action against the culprits who were involved in tax evasion.

The government, in November 2016, had demonetised 86% of the currency in circulation, and forced the whole country to deposit the old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes back in banks.

In the process, everyone was required to give account of the money that was deposited in the banks. Even though the government is yet to come out with the total amount that was deposited back in the banking system, it has been claiming that it had identified accounts that had received deposits of unaccounted wealth from depositors.

Modi also rued the fact that no audit firm from India was part of the internationally-acclaimed big four agencies in the world, namely PwC, Deloitte, EY and KPMG. He urged the community of CAs to overtake the current big four by 2022, by establishing their name for authenticity and reliability in the field of company accounts auditing.