Switzerland to provide information on black money in time-bound manner

Switzerland on 15 October 2014 agreed to examine Indian requests for banking information on a priority basis and provide requested details in a time-bound manner.

This was revealed in a Swiss-Indian Joint Statement released after high-level meeting between the Revenue Secretary Shaktikanta Das and his Swiss counterpart State Secretary for International Financial Matters, Jacques de Watteville in Berne.

Apart from this, the Swiss authorities will also assist India in obtaining confirmation on genuineness of bank documents on request by the Indian side. It will also swiftly provide information on requests related to non-banking information.

Beside, the two parties discussed various bilateral and multilateral tax and financial issues. They also agreed to continue the dialogue between the two countries.

Background
According to Swiss National Bank’s latest data, total money held by Indians in Swiss banks stood at 14000 crore rupees as on December 2013. This data is nearly 42 percent high from a year ago.

Comment: This announcement of Swiss authorities is a major response to India’s fight against black money allegedly stashed abroad.