India seized of the issue of illegal money in foreign banks

Kolkata, Apr 22 (PTI) Countering Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP) leader L K Advani's charge that the United Progressive
Alliance (UPA) government has done little to bring back
illegal money of Indian citizens stashed in secret foreign
banks, Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee Wednesday said
the government was fully seized of the matter and has taken
all steps in this regard.

Denying charges that the UPA government was going slow
in taking action against illegal money of Indian citizens
stashed away in secret Swiss banks and other tax havens,
Mukherjee said in a statement in a meet-the-press programme
here that such reports were 'completely incorrect'.

He said that the BJP has submitted the report of its
task force in this regard to him and to the Prime Minister,
but there was nothing new in it. "We are fully seized of the
issue and have taken all necessary steps," he said.

He said at the G-20 meeting in London the Prime
Minister had specifically raised the issue of sharing
information (relating to tax compliance) and bringing tax
havens and non-cooperating undertakings under close scrutiny.

Advani had said last week that the NDA, if voted to
power, would initiate "vigorous action" in 100 days to bring
back thousands of crores of rupee stashed away by Indian
nationals in secret Swiss accounts and tax havens.

Mukherjee criticised the previous NDA government for
not notifying the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002,
during its tenure till 2004.

He also said that India had been mounting pressure on
the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and other similar
regional bodies under its umbrella like Asia Pacific Group on
Anti-Money laundering and counter financing of terrorism.

He said that after amendments to the Prevention of
Money Laundering Act were passed by Parliament last February,
the matter was taken up at the FATF plenary held in Paris
where they have agreed to mutual evaluation which was a
prerequisite for granting of membership.

The evaluation is likely to take place in the third
or fourth quarter of 2009, he said and hoped that India would
get FATF membership.

He also refuted the charge that India was unwilling to
gather information from Germany which has a list of Indian
citizens who have deposits in LGT Bank, Liechtenstein.

After India took up the matter with that country,
Germany has reiterated the secrecy obligations under the tax
treaty while handing over the information. "So, the Government
of India is not in a position to publicly disclose the
content," he said.

Mukherjee said that despite consistent pressure,
Switzerland had refused to share information on tax related
matters on the ground that domestic interest was not involved
or that it violated bank secrecy laws.