The result of this will be a fall in a geometrical progression in the Government's revenues particularly direct taxes beginning next year.

This follows the policy changes effected in the direct taxes which make it mandatory for the NRIs to declare their overseas assets including their bank account details while filing their income Tax Returns in India.

Faced with this direct threat of 'mandatory' disclosures of their overseas wealth including all assets and bank account details, the NRIs have already started withdrawing from India.

Says Shekhar Pushkarna, a prominent NRI of 30 years in Hong Kong, “The NRIs today are busy exploring ways to liquidate their investments in India in an drastic effort to get out of the Indian Income Tax net. For, if they have no income to declare in India, they will be under no obligation to comply with disclosure stipulation of the Government of India.”

While some have sold their properties at depressed prices in an effort to pull out of India , others are working overtime with their accountants to transfer their existing assets to their Indian kith and kin for safe keeping at least for the time being.

India is a great disappointment for us NRIs with the government's unreasonable requirement of disclosing overseas assets and bank accounts, Pushkarna said.

The continued pressure mounted on the NRIs by the Indian Tax Man for disclosures has made our lives miserable says Mr Suklecha another successful NRI who fears that his family back home may be troubled if he did not wind up from India right away.

The worst affected by this policy are the very Gujarati and Marwari communities who constitute the best segment of the prime ministers' NRI constituency.

For, it is these communities which have a massive stake both in India and overseas because of their diamond and bullion trade says Mr Shah a London based NRI .

There is of course the new brand of entrepreneurs in both software and hardware who have also very high stakes both in India and overseas. They also face a rather precarious situation.

Mr S Natarajan of Singapore says “I thought this government was reasonable and had great expectations from Mr Modi.”

“But I suppose he used the NRI card to hog huge mileage right across the globe and let them down the moment he reached back home to face harsh reality. Perhaps the NRI is now a bad word, if his policy initiatives are any indication.”

Arvind Mahal, another US- based NRI of 35 years says Mr Modi's assurances to protect the interests of NRI seem to have been lost out no sooner he returned from his overseas tours! His anti NRI policy can be seen from this single action of making it mandatory for NRIs to disclose all their overseas assets and bank accounts. This is a retrograde step.

This action is skin to the proverbial “biting the hand that feeds them.' We are now being penalised for honestly paying income tax in India, he said.

Mr S. Sobti of UK said “I have been an honest tax payer in India all my life even though I am happily settled in the UK for 25 years. Why does India need my overseas details? Obviously they want to build information to harass my wife and children should I die tomorrow.”

A major businessman NRI who prefers to stay anonymous says their agenda today is to see how to pull out their investments from India asap or before the next financial year. The exercise is to first of all make sure that “we sell off everything in India and have no income to declare. In other words get out of the income tax net totally.”

In the alternative, one has to give up everything overseas and get back to India. This is a rather difficult proposition as most of us have spent a better part of our lives abroad and created wealth through years of struggle, he added. Now when the happy days are here, we find ourselves in a bind with our own Government instead of recognising our contribution is hell bent upon ruining us! I could be much better off in Switzerland or in Singapore where we do not suffer from such humiliation!

Asked as to where could these fund go once withdrawn from India, they quipped there are many a tax heavens including lucrative markets in China and Vietnam. (IPA Service)