Time to question Indian government’s fight to curb black money. Big promises by politicians during election campaign may remain unfulfilled. India received its first tranche of Swiss Bank account details of Indian nationals under automatic information exchange pact on 7th of October 2019. However, no action has been taken till date by the Indian government since the release of information.
According to the Federal Tax Administration (FTA) sources, Switzerland’s federal tax administration has exchanged information on monetary accounts within the regulations of global standards on Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI).
What information includes?
The Swiss Authorities exchanged information on accounts of currently active and those which have been closed in 2018. These include only those accounts which are officially in the name of Indians.
The data at Swiss Bank includes name, address, residential state, tax identification number of businessmen. Information included NRI’s residing in the US, UK, Africa, South America, and Southeast Asian countries. Besides, it includes information related to the financial institution, account balance and capital income. However, the disclosed information governed by the rules of confidentiality; so, the FTA has refused to reveal the information on account numbers and the quantity of the financial assets. In addition, the next such exchange will take place in September 2020.
Financial Accounts of 75 Countries
The Swiss government revealed that the information exchange took place with 75 countries and 63 of them cross exchanged the data. The rest of the 12 countries did not receive any information as they did not meet the confidentiality and data security standards. Some of the countries also chose not to receive any information. However, Germany carried out the largest exchange both ways.
The Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation will examine the implementation of AEOI.
“The exchanged information will allow cantonal tax authorities to verify that whether taxpayers have correctly declared their financial accounts abroad in their tax returns,” said the FTA.
The information will assist the Indian government to take strong action against the black money holders abroad.