Will Swiss banks share details with India?
Swiss banks may have turned over
client details to the US, but they have said India is not welcome there on a
name-fishing expedition.
"Swiss law and even OECD's Model Tax Convention do not permit fishing
expeditions, in other words, the indiscriminate trawling through bank accounts
in the hope of finding something interesting.
"This means that India cannot simply throw its telephone book at
Switzerland and ask if any of these people have a bank account here," a
top official at Swiss Bankers Association said from Basel.
The secrecy shield provided by Swiss banks have always been a big issue in
India, including during the campaign for this year's general elections, and the
government recently said that it has approached Switzerland seeking details
about bank accounts held by Indians there.
Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee recently informed Parliament that the
government was committed to unearthing black money within and outside the
country.
"Swiss authorities, I am told, have agreed for negotiations (on the
issue)... We have already taken it (the issue of black money) not only with
Swiss authorities but other nations as well," Mukherjee said.
Last week, the US reached an agreement with Switzerland, under which top Swiss
bank UBS AG turned over details of 4,450 secret accounts to the Internal
Revenue Service.
|