Swiss Bank Account Holders to be exposed

Bern/New Delhi: It will now be possible for the Indian government to access the information about the money deposited by the Indians in the Swiss bank accounts. Switzerland’s parliamentary committee has approved the proposal for instant automatic exchanges of the transaction done through the Swiss Bank accounts. After this the proposal will be sent to the Senate’s Senior Assembly House for approval in the same month.

For the last three years, the Government of India has been discussing to get information about the money deposited by Indians in the Swiss accounts. Last year, a deal too was signed between India and Switzerland in this regard. Other hundred countries, including India, are demanding similar information from Switzerland. In this regard, a proposal has been made by the Economic Affairs and Taxation Council of Switzerland, which has been named as Automatic Information Exchange Pact. Switzerland’s financial affairs and tax related parliamentary committee approved this agreement. Accordingly, there is a proposal of exchanging information of the Swiss bank accounts with 40 countries. India is also included in this.

However, approval of the Parliament of the Supreme Assembly of Switzerland is necessary. The Winter Session of the Parliament of Switzerland will begin on 27 November. The proposal approved by the Parliamentary Committee will be presented in the House. There is a possibility that it will get approval in the same session. According to the ‘Automatic Information Exchange Pact’ beginning 2019, the exchange information on bank accounts would start with all the co-operative countries.

According to this, if an Indian deposits money in any of his Swiss bank accounts, then the information will be immediately notified from that bank to the concerned Swiss government department. The information will be communicated to the concerned Indian Officials immediately by the officers of this department. Therefore, it will be possible to initiate an immediate inquiry.

India can access all the information such as in whose account on what date and what amount got deposited and also, the name of the account holder, his date of birth, address the balance in his account, the interest he receives, and the bank’s identification number of the account holder. While approving the Automatic Information Exchange Pact by the Swiss parliamentary committee, its associate countries have been advised to tighten the tax laws.

The unaccounted money that Indians are accumulating in Swiss banks is a matter of concern to India. To curb the black money, the government is trying to exchange such information with other countries, including Switzerland, which is considered as ‘Tax Haven’ by tax avoiders.

(Tax Haven means favorable tax or generous tax incentives offered by any country)