The Brics Post, March 27, 2014
Citing tight bank secrecy laws, Switzerland has amassed assets worth trillions of dollars from foreigners over the past decades [AP] |
Indian
Finance Minister P Chidambaram has threatened to drag the European nation to
multilateral foras like G20 for continuing to block its requests of sharing
information on Indians stashing money in its banks.
In a letter
to Swiss Finance Minister Eveline Widmer Schlumpf, Chidambaram reminded her of
the April 2009 declaration adopted by G20 leaders stating the “era of bank
secrecy is over.”
In a
strongly worded letter, he said India might examine further steps like
declaring Switzerland a non-cooperative jurisdiction if non-cooperation
continues.
Citing tight
bank secrecy laws, Switzerland has amassed assets worth trillions of dollars
from foreigners over the past decades. The US Justice Department is probing 14
Swiss banks over taxes.
Chidambaram
said Switzerland has not honoured the terms of the Double Taxation Avoidance
Agreement (DTAA) between the two nations, under which information about Indians
with accounts in Swiss banks has been sought by the tax authorities.
“Switzerland’s
refusal to provide information to India and other countries on the grounds that
the source of the information requested is based on ‘stolen data’ means that,
in practice, Switzerland still believes in bank secrecy and is therefore not in
tune with the modern era,” he said in the letter dated March 13.
Recalling
the G20 stand that sanctions may be deployed to protect their public finances
and financial systems, he said:
“If
information continues to be denied to India under DTAC (Double Taxation
Avoidance Convention), the Government of India will be constrained to take a
position in the global forum.”
He said
India would not hesitate to tell global forums that Switzerland still does not
comply with the standards of transparency and that the required legal and
regulatory framework is still not in place in Switzerland.
“Further,
the Government of India may also have to raise this issue in other multilateral
fora such as the G20,” he added.
Switzerland
is a hub for private banking and a popular destination for the global wealthy
elite.
Source: Agencies
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