Chennai: Demonetisation is the right step in the battle against fake currencies being pumped into the Indian economy by Pakistan, former Central Vigilance Commissioner N. Vittal has said.
Inaugurating a symposium here on Friday titled, ‘Demonetisation-a trishul against tax evasion, corruption and black money’, organised by The Centenarian Trust of Chennai, Vittal said demonetisation measures had earlier been taken in 1946 and 1978.
Expressing hope that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would keep his promise that the hardship faced by the common man due to demonetisation would end soon, Vittal said, “PM said this step was taken to end tax evasion, corruption and black money”.
Presiding over the symposium, VIT chancellor Dr G. Viswanathan said it was unfortunate that tax evasion had become common practice even among the common people.
Regretting that only one per cent of the Indian population of 134 crore paid taxes promptly, he said, “If the professionals like engineers, businessmen, lawyers and doctors, pay their taxes regularly, it would help the government to allocate more funds to research and development (R&D), which is vital for the growth in national economy.
Dr Viswanathan said corruption is the biggest problem of our country. “If a minister or a secretary is involved in corruption, the whole department would become a hub of corrupt practices”, he added.
Recalling strong measures against corruption in China, Dr Viswanathan said nearly a lakh of corrupt officials, ministers and politicians were jailed in China over the last three years.
