No info on illegal gold trade, black money: RBI

The Reserve Bank of India does not have any estimate of alleged illegal gold transactions going on in the country, according an RTI reply.

The application addressed to the Finance Ministry was transferred to the Bankers' Bank for a reply on the issue of illegal gold transactions, 'hawala' trade and blackmoney stashed away in banks abroad, but the RBI said it had no information on these issue.

In its reply regarding sale of unaccounted gold, the Bank said, "As regards questions regarding sale and consumption of gold, it was ascertained from Department of Statistics and Information Management that they do not collate such information."

The Bank had also marked these questions to Department of Economic Analysis and Policy, which through its reply dated July 22, 2010, "advised" it that it had no information on the matter, the reply reveals.

Country's Central Bank then forwarded these questions to Department of External Investments and Operations to get information on the issue, but to no avail.

"These questions were then marked to DEIO which has also stated that it has no information vide July 26, 2010.

It is therefore proposed to advise the requestor that we have no information on these questions (related to illegal gold sales and consumption)," the bank informed activist S C Agrawal, who had filed the application.

Regarding the questions related to illegal investment by Indians in foreign countries and money stashed away in banks abroad, the RBI again said it had no information on the issue.

Agrawal had filed his 14-point RTI application seeking details on these issue with the Union Finance Ministry.

The Ministry then forwarded it to Enforcement Directorate which again transferred the application to Reserve Bank of India for providing the reply.