GAZA CITY: Gaza's Hamas rulers dismissed an attempt by Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas to secure UN membership for a Palestinian state as a step with "no substance."
"Abbas's speech to the United Nations was an emotional speech which succeeded in presenting Palestinian suffering, but he failed to discuss ways of confronting the occupation while linking his UN bid to negotiation with the occupation, making it a step with no substance," Sami Abu Zuhri, a spokesman for the Islamist movement, told AFP yesterday.
The high-level committee set up by the finance ministry to examine steps to strengthen laws to deal with the generation of black money which met here on Friday decided against any provision for capital punishment for those caught with ill-gotten wealth and rejected the need for a voluntary disclosure of income (VDIS) scheme.
The committee -- headed by Central Board of Direct Taxes chairman M C Joshi and comprising members from the law ministry, Enforcement Directorate, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence and Financial Intelligence Unit - sought stringent punitive actions for offenders but said there was no need for a new law to be framed for this.
The representative from the law ministry said there was no new law required to deal with the menace of black money. Existing provisions under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) were enough to deal with the issue but they need to be strengthened. For instance, the minimum punishment for those caught with black money could be enhanced to a prison term of not less than seven years as against the existing five to seven years.
