Common man’s suffering has no limits these days prices increasing, jobs paying less, not enough to etch out a decent life…… what more?

As you go out into the market one will find all the above and more demons ready to eat whatever we have and in many cases even us. Is the situation like this for all segments of the people or are we only penalized for our innocence. This is the common question arising in all middle class mindset. The rich are the affluent and they are unaffected by the growing price index and have substantial to waste. The poor have the necessary antidote given by the ruling governments in the form of below poverty line status and lots of freebies to lure their vote base. It is the middle class who try to live like the rich and are afraid to slide down to the bottom. In their struggle for existence, they die every day to live each day.

And here comes a report from the Global Financial Integrity, an agency which works to promote policies that curtail the cross-border flow of illegal money and do you know what the report states about our country!! It seems nearly $128 billion (roughly Rs 5 to 6 lakh Cr) was illegally siphoned out of India in the decade spanning 2000 to 2009. The data was first collected and computed worldwide on illicit financial outflows in 2008. Calculations say that this could be approximately about $10-13 billion (Rs 48,000 to Rs 63,000 Cr) every year.

A point of respite for us is China was far and away the worst to experience illicit financial flows, losing an estimated $2.7 trillion in the decade from 2000 to 2009. Russia was next in line, a long way behind, with $504 billion in illicit flows. India doesn’t find a place in the top 10, but comes in at No. 15 on the list of developing countries that see the largest illicit financial flows.

A leading financial advisor says by curtailing these illicit transfers of funds India can go beyond the most developed nations and this would aid the economy much. But how are these funds going out and what are are the rules that have to be implemented and how these people can be brought to the law dragnet is an unanswered question.