Round tripping

Subject: Economy

Context:

Raising questions of round-tripping through a maze of firms, an influential Pune-based businessman received over Rs 52 crore from an IL&FS (Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd.) group company which he then used to repay his initial loan to the very same IL&FS company.

Concept:

• Money leaves the country through various channels such as inflated invoices, payments to shell companies overseas, the hawala route and so on. After cooling its heels overseas for a while, this money returns in a freshly laundered form; thus completing a round-trip.
• How does the money return to India? It could be invested in offshore funds that in turn invest in Indian assets. The Global Depository Receipts (GDR) and Participatory Notes (P-Notes) are some of the other routes that have been used in the past.