Part of black money recovered from tax havens to be shared with tax payers: Modi at 'chai pe charcha'

Ahmedabad: Narendra Modi on Wednesday promised that honest taxpayers will be given as a 'gift' 5 to 10 per cent share of the black money that he vowed to bring back from tax havens abroad if BJP comes to power.

Milking 'chai wala' barb against him for all its worth, the BJP Prime Ministerial candidate sipped tea at ease as he interacted with the common man across 1,000 places through video, attacking Congress over governance and black money.

Modi said he would set up a task force and change the laws to bring back black money.

"It is the prime responsibility of the government to bring back black money. Only the next government will be able to do this and this is my personal commitment," he said.

As an incentive, he said, whatever such money is brought in, 5 to 10 per cent of it will be given as a 'gift' to those salaried class who earned fixed income and honestly paid taxes," he said.

"I will distribute this 5 to 10 per cent amount to all those who have fixed incomes and are regular tax payers," Modi said, in an apparent bid to woo the salaried class and employees ahead of elections, who are hit hard with price rise and inflation.

He announced that once BJP comes to power, the government will seek information from tax havens abroad and bring back every penny from outside.

"The whole country is worried about black money. It is an anti-national activity...For bringing back this black money, you require a political will. I give an assurance to my countrymen that when we will form a government in Delhi, we will create a task force and if necessary will amend the laws."

He dubbed black money as a 'national worry' and said bad governance is like diabetes.

"We will bring back each and every foreign money which is deposited by Indian citizens. I am committed to this because this money belongs to the poor people of India and no one has the right to do this kind of anti-national activity," he said answering a query in this regard.

"No matter how strong the body is, once it's afflicted by diabetes, it begins to host multiple diseases. Bad governance is like diabetes. Corruption sets in, there is no development and people are condemned to suffer," he said.

Modi interacted with people here as part of its much-hyped 'Chai pe charcha with NaMo' (a discussion over tea with Modi), where he answered to questions from the public from across the country on the theme of good governance.