Illicit financial flow from India pegged at $83.5 bn

Merc drives in locally made GLC SUV Coupé

Mercedes-Benz, India’s biggest luxury car maker, expanded its locally made car portfolio to 10 with the launch of Mercedes GLC SUV Coupé. While the GLC Coupe 300 petrol is priced at Rs 62.70 lakh, the GLC 300d diesel costs Rs 63.70 lakh at pan India showroom. Piyush Arora, executive director, operations at Mercedes-Benz India said GLC Coupe is the 10th car to be rolled-out from its assembly line in Chakan factory.

New Delhi, March 3: India has the third-highest trade-related illicit financial flow among over 135 countries with a whopping $83.5 billion escaping the government's tax net owing to trade-based money laundering tactics, according to a report released on Tuesday by US-based think tank Global Financial Integrity (GFI).

The GFI classifies as illicit flows funds which are illegally earned, transferred, and/or used across an international border.

The primary sources of illicit flows include grand corruption, commercial tax evasion, and transnational crime. A drug cartel using trade-based money laundering techniques to use the illegal proceeds of narcotics sales to purchase used cars, which will be exported to the drug source country and sold, is an example of illicit financial flow, it said.

According to the report, for 2017, five countries with the largest identified value gaps were China at $457.7 billion, followed by Mexico at $85.3 billion, India at $83.5 billion, Russia at $74.8 billion, and Poland at $66.3 billion.

—PTI