SME Times News Bureau | 27 May, 2015
Expressing
satisfaction with Swiss authorities sharing the names of two Indian
nationals in connection with black money stashed abroad, Finance
Minister Arun Jaitley said on Tuesday that the move should provide
enough indications of action against those holding unaccounted assets
outside India.
"I am extremely
encouraged by the government of Switzerland and the competent
authorities there in cooperating with the Indian request,"
Jaitley said here.
"I have been
repeatedly saying that the veil of secrecy with regard to assets and
monies kept by Indian entities outside India is going to be lifted.
This should give a sufficient indicator to those who hold assets
outside India," he said.
Two Indian women
figure among dozens of foreign nationals with Swiss bank accounts
made public in Switzerland's Federal Gazette for being probed in
their respective countries.
"In the last
one year, we have had extensive negotiations with the Swiss
authorities. These negotiations have been at the level of the revenue
secretary and at my own level on two occasions, and the Swiss
authorities have been moving in the direction of cooperation,"
the minister said.
The Swiss
authorities revealed the names of Indian nationals Sneh Lata Sawhney
and Sangita Sawhney and have reportedly asked them to file an appeal
within 30 days to avoid having their details shared with the Indian
authorities.
"As it is, some
countries have already been cooperating. The world is moving in the
direction of automatic exchange of information," Jaitley added.
Last month in
Washington, Jaitley sought urgent implementation of the automatic
exchange of financial account information globally to tackle the
menace of black money.
"We strongly
feel that there is a need to ensure that the common reporting
standards on automatic exchange of information should be implemented
on a fully reciprocal global basis and those countries which have not
yet committed to the timeline of 2017 or 2018 should do it without
any further delay," he said at the annual Spring Meeting of the
International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
India has strongly
advocated fast implementation of the automatic exchange of tax
information globally, within the time-frame agreed to by the G20
countries.
At the G20 Brisbane
summit last November, leaders endorsed a new global transparency
standard by which more than 90 jurisdictions will begin automatic
exchange of tax information, using a common reporting standard by
2017-18.
India has no
official estimates of illegal money stashed away overseas, but the
unofficial assessments put the figure from $466 billion to $1.4
trillion.