Swiss Parliament gives nod to share black money info with Indian govt

NEW DELHI: Paving the way for India to get instant access to details of countrymen with Swiss accounts, a key parliamentary panel in Switzerland has approved an automatic information exchange pact between the two countries.

The commission for economic affairs and taxes of the council of states — a key panel of the Swiss Parliament’s Upper House — approved the proposed pact with India and 40 other countries, but suggested strengthening the provisions for individual claims.

The proposal will now be submitted for approval from the upper chamber of Swiss Parliament, in the winter session beginning November 27.

The pact will help provide a continuous access to details about alleged black money hoarders in Swiss banks. The information that could be exchanged under this framework would include account number, name, address, date of birth, tax identification number, interest, dividend, receipts from insurance policies, credit balance in accounts and proceeds from sale of financial assets.

The exchange will work like this — if an Indian has a bank account in Switzerland, the bank will disclose the financial data to authorities there; the Swiss authority will automatically forward the information to its peer in India who can then examine the person’s details.

To help check cross-border tax evasion, nearly 100 countries have so far committed to adopt this global standard for the automatic exchange of information (AEOI). However, domestic bank client confidentiality in Switzerland is not affected by the AEOI.

THE INFO THAT COULD BE EXCHANGED UNDER THE PACT WOULD INCLUDE ACCOUNT NUMBER, NAME, CREDIT BALANCE AND PROCEEDS FROM THE SALE OF ASSETS