Is black money issue insurmountable?

This refers to the article' Our Black Money is here, not in Switzerland'( Sunday times Dt, June,19,2011). The author while giving out the details of black money in India rather than in Switzerland has highlighted the deficiencies in our tax administration. The income tax Department should do an introspection and satisfy themselves with the number of people paying tax in India is okay. It is widely reported that only 31 million people or 2.5 percent of the population is paying tax is itself a mockery and put the department into shame.
Millions of people are operating in the share market on a day to day basis. The number of transactions in bullion market, real estate, other commodities market and the amount involved would be of very high magnitude and indicate that tax evasion is rather convenient and permissible. Most of these transactions are in cash and generally receipts are not issued. Credibility of this market is very high among the customers and failures are seldom reported or not known. These are not secret transactions and there are specialised markets in almost all cities and towns.
The very basic approach to tackle black money and track the transactions would be to insist on issue of receipts witha copy to tax autorities for all types of transactions irrespective of the amount. Pan numbers and insistence of plastic cards, cheques above a cut off point would give a signal to market and black money can be minimised over a period of time. Information Technology needs to be properly put into optimum use. It is against all ethics and values that only 31 million pay income tax in India.

T.V.Gopalakrishnan