In a move to tighten noose around black money, India receives first tranche of Swiss account details of its residents

New Delhi, October 07: Marking a significant milestone in the fight against black money suspected to be stashed abroad, Switzerland has mobed up to provide the first tranche of details about financial accounts to 75 countries including India under Automatic Info Exchange Framework.

 

This is the first time that India has received details from Switzerland under the AEOI framework, which provides for exchange of information on financial accounts that currently active as well as those accounts that were closed during 2018. "The next exchange would take place in September 2020", the spokesperson added.

 

 

While the exchange is governed by strict confidentiality clauses, the FTA has sent information on around 3.1 million financial accounts to the partner states and received information on around 2.4 million from them.

 

"The exchanged information includes identification, account and financial information. These include name, address, state of residence and tax identification number, as well as information concerning the financial institution, account balance and capital income", the statement read. Separately, the Switzerland government added that the number of countries with which the AEOI took place has risen to 75 this year, out of which it was reciprocal with 63 countries.

 

In the case of 12 countries, Switzerland received information but did not provide any, either because those countries do not yet meet the international requirements on confidentiality and data security or because they chose not to receive data. The data was collected by the FTA from around 7,500 institutions including banks, trusts and insurers.

 

There are at least 100 cases of older accounts held by Indians, which might have been closed before 2018, for which Switzerland is in the process of sharing details with India under an earlier framework of mutual administrative assistance as Indian authorities had provided prima facie evidence of tax-related wrongdoings by those account holders.

 

These relate to people engaged in businesses like auto components, chemicals, textiles, real estate, diamond and jewellery and steel products. However, the AEOI only relates to accounts that are officially in the name of Indian residents and they might include those used for business and other genuine purposes.