Modi, Swiss Prez discuss fight against black money

Ways to effectively combat black money and tax evasion figured extensively during talks on Thursday between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Swiss President Doris Leuthard, who expressed a strong commitment to help India deal with the problem.

Ms Leuthard exuded confidence that a law on ensuring automatic exchange of information relating to tax would be passed by the Swiss Parliament by the end of 2017 and her country will be able to exchange the first set of information with India by 2019.

Mr Modi said in a statement: “Be it black money, dirty money, hawala transaction or money related to arms and drugs, our cooperation with Switzerland continues to deal with the global curse.”

Ms Leuthard said: “We hope that by the end of this year, this (law on automatic exchange of information) will be passed and be operational by 2019.”

Ways to effectively combat black money and tax evasion figured extensively during talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Swiss President Doris Leuthard, who expressed strong commitment to help India to deal with the problem.

Mr Modi thanked Switzerland for helping India become a member of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), a multilateral export control regime, and consistently supporting New Delhi’s bid for membership of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).

Describing their talks as productive, Mr Modi said transparency in financial transactions is a major global challenge and that cooperation between India and Switzerland over it will continue further.

“Be it black money, dirty money, hawala transaction or money related to arms and drugs, our cooperation with Switzerland continues to deal with the global curse,” the Prime Minister said. The Swiss President exuded confidence that a law on ensuring automatic exchange of information relating to tax would be cleared by the Swiss Parliament by end of the year and her country will be able to exchange first set of information with India by 2019.

“We hope by end of this year, this (law on automatic exchange of information) will be passed,” she said.

— SONDEEP SHANKAR Swiss President Doris Leuthard inspects the guard of honour during the welcome ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on Thursday.