India seeks information on Swiss accounts from Germany

New Delhi, Feb 19 (PTI) India has approached Germany to
ascertain whether any Indian has an account in the Swiss
branch of German-based Liechterstein Bank, Minister of State
for Finance Pawan Kumar Bansal said Thursday.

"The Central Board of Direct Taxes is pursuing the
matter, so is our ambassador to Germany," Bansal said in the
Rajya Sabha replying to a debate on the Prevention of Money
Laundering (Amendment) Bill.

Leader of Opposition Jaswant Singh had written to Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh asking whether the government has
taken up the issue with the German authorities.

Participating in the debate on the bill, senior BJP
leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said an employee of the
Liechterstein Bank had revealed that 700-800 people from
several countries had accounts in its Swiss branch.

Following this revelation, governments of these countries
had asked their citizens to withdraw accounts from the Swiss
branch of the German bank. PTI ASI
SAK