The Lok Sabha on Wednesday rejected the adjournment motion moved by the BJP on black money. The motion moved by senior BJP leader L.K. Advani was defeated by a voice vote.

Replying to the debate, the Finance Minister, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee assured the House to bring a white paper on black money. Dismissing the opposition charges, Mr. Mukaherjee said, it is for Parliament to decide on how to get rid of this menace. He informed the House that the government has unearthed 66 thousand crore rupees of black money so far. He said, a five-pronged strategy is in place to trace illegal money stashed abroad.

The Finance Minister noted that three national institutes specializing in financial studies have been asked to independently assess the extent of black money parked in foreign banks and government has completed formalities for getting information from banks in 60 countries including Switzerland. The information will be prospective and not retrospective, he clarified.

In response to Members' demands to declare the names of Indians having illegal accounts in foreign banks, Mr. Mukherjee said, it is not possible. The reason is there may be genuine account holders as well who have parked their money in these banks for business purposes.

Moving the adjournment motion earlier, the BJP leader, Mr. L.K. Advani alleged that the government has failed in bringing back black money stashed in foreign banks. He pleaded for stringent laws to curb the flow of illegal money through Hawala channels which is mostly being used to fund terrorist activities in the country. Mr. Advani demanded a white paper on black money issue.

Refuting the Opposition charges Mr. Manish Tewari of congress alleged that it was NDA government that relaxed the Mauritius route leading to outflow of money to other countries. He said that black money has emerged as a parallel economy and effective steps need to be taken to deal with it.

Mr. Mulayam Singh Yadav of Samajwadi Party urged the government to take effective steps to bring back black money in foreign banks back to India. He said if the money is brought back, it will be able to feed 50 crore people in the country.

Members of other political parties and Independents also participated in the debate.