'India's black money market larger than health, edu spend': The Times of India

Wealth earned from crime, corruption and tax evasion, and illegally taken out of the country, tops India's total spending on education or health, according to a new study by financial watchdog Global Financial Integrity (GFI).

Average yearly flows of such illicit finances, popularly referred to as black money , were nearly 120% more than the government's yearly education spend, and about 100% more than its health expenditure.

The report correlated outflows of black money from 82 developing countries around the world and discovered that the poorer the country , the more is money illegally moved out, presumably to be stashed away in tax havens. Earlier GFI studies have found that nearly $1 trillion worth of illicit financial flows take place every year from developing countries. India was estimated to lose about $44 billion annually between 2003 and 2012, with the total working out to a mind-boggling $440 billion overthe decade.

Notably, GFI investigations have shown that globally, 80% of illicit financial flows take place through trade misinvoicing done by international corporate entities.For India, this component is even more predominant, accounting for over 98% of illicit financial outflows.

For India, the average yearly illicit outflow for the years 2008-12 was 4% of GDP , 10% of trade, 215% of foreign direct investment (FDI), 40% of total tax revenue and 0.7% of capital stock, the report said.

The report also found a disturbing correlation between illicit financial flows and higher levels of poverty , higher levels of economic inequality , and lower levels of human development, as measured by the United Nations' annual Human Development Index.

"Higher illicit outflows aggravate poverty , exacerbate income inequality , and erode human development in the world's poorest countries," said Joseph Spanjers, co-author of the report. Correla tions are also found between higher relative levels of illicit financial flows and trade open ness, tariff rates, and the efficiency of customs.

However, no correlation was found between indicators of quality of public institu tions or rule of law like the Fragile State Index, Corrup tion Perception Index or Public Sector Management rankings, and illegal black money outflows.

No correlation was found with broad fiscal or macroeco nomic indicators either.

Surprisingly, no correlation was found even between the extent of the shadow econ omy within the country and illicit financial outflows.

Earlier GFI studies on India, Mexico, Russia and the Philippines had shown a link between the two phenomena.