Creators of black money will be punished: Narendra Modi

AHMEDABAD: Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi today said time will come when those behind creation of black money in the country will be punished.

"An opportunity will come to punish all those behind the creation of black money in the country," Modi said.

"The currency is not black.... but black money is an outcome of the black minds," Modi said while speaking at the national convention for Chartered Accountant (CAs) students held here.

Modi, who was recently anointed as the chief of BJP's election campaign committee, said CAs can play a big role in improving the social fabric by stopping creation of black money.

"The audit reports submitted by CAs are not merely reports but a basis of trust for people and their financial decisions," he said, adding the common man's financial decisions depend on such audit reports.

Highlighting the growth in outlay of five-year plans for Gujarat, Modi said "before I came to power, there was an expense of Rs 55,000 crore in 9 five-year plans. In the 10th plan, it was Rs 1,75,000 crore, while it has surpassed Rs 2.51 lakh crore in 12th Five year plan".

Modi said the hike in the outlay was possible by plugging the leakages and without imposing additional taxes.

He said that in a stark contrast to Gujarat, where nearly 35 per cent of the expenditure is of non-developmental in nature, the central government's expenditure towards non-developmental activities was around 70 per cent.