TOPICS:Black money menace

Black money has not only spread itself everywhere, it seems to have innumerable forms and dimensions- both seen and unseen (with time). Today, black money and corruption have become ‘conventions’, a ‘tradition’ and even a ‘necessity’.

Thus, it has become a regular practice in businesses or various other transactions all over. It has manifestations or varieties of shapes and major dimensions of trading and purchasing happening directly under the scrutiny of law, but prosecutors seem unaware of it, or in most circumstances give a blind eye to those practices. These investments have given a major boost to the economy presently. But unforeseen circumstances seem lurking yonder. The instances of laundering or bias lending are but tips of the iceberg. Nepal today is a huge market thriving on black money’. It is fast becoming the citadel of smugglers, traffickers and mobsters.

Ironically, black money enforces loan disciplines in most of the banks in Nepal, leading us to unforeseen crises that could dampen major

structures and trends in the banking trade and further ruin the economy that is already in shambles.

The formal contracts or legal processes strengthen loan discipline but black money reinforces loans

to a much larger perspective. The core reason seems that banks enjoy, without asking for it, a huge safety margin provided by the abundance or availability of black money’; Usually, this kind of money is invested

by buying property (land) and yet people still opt for a bank loan. Unaccounted, un-audited money also seem to find its way into land, bank shares and housing businesses.

With more than 100 million rupees worth of land transactions taking place every fortnight in the valley alone — one could easily get an insight into the scale of black money entering the market.

The fast rising inflation is another major cause of black money too. With shortages and rampant confusion of price mechanisms in our country, black money and its owners have excited the share markets too. The major investments and sky rocketing share prices in the past are clear indications of such easy investments, the decline in share prices recently only stress this fact with a somewhat changed scenario post-VDIS scheme.