New tax pact will help India trace black money: Swiss govt

Manash Pratim Bhuyan

New Delhi, Sep 6 (PTI) As India and Switzerland prepare
to renegotiate the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement, the
Swiss government has said it was confident that the pact would
be finalised by next year and enable New Delhi to seek details
about blackmoney stashed in banks there.

"Yes" was the emphatic answer of Switzerland's Vice-
President Doris Leuthard when asked whether renegotiating the
treaty, which was signed in 1995, would enable India seek
details of specific cases where tax evaders money was lying in
Swiss banks.

She said she was confident of a positive outcome from the
talks that are to begin in December.

"I think next year this new treaty can be accomplished,"
Leuthard, who was here for an informal WTO ministerial, told
PTI.

Leuthard said she had "good talks with India on tax
matters."

On Swiss Bankers Association's (SBA) stance that India
was not welcome there on a name-fishing expedition, she
said no country in the world would allow such an activity.

"Fishing expedition is not allowed (anywhere in) the
world. We have the OECD standards. We follow international
rules...we do not protect crime," Leuthard, who is also
Minister of Economic Affairs, said.

Leuthard said India will have to apply through legal
procedures based on the existing double taxation avoidance
treaty if it has demands about specific cases of tax evasion.

"We already have a treaty with India. It only works if
there is a concrete demand from the Indian authorities. The
demand must follow principles of the treaty," she added.

Asked why Switzerland is not entertaining India's request
when it has already given account details of a large number
people to the US government, Leuthard said: "The US had a
concrete demand. Legal procedure was already underway. These
were all clients which cheated the authorities and we never
cover (up) fraud."

Switzerland had last month reached an agreement with the
US to give that country's Internal Revenue Service details
of 4,450 clients who Washington suspected of evading taxes.

The issue of brining back black money stashed in Swiss
banks had become a hot topic during the Lok Sabha (Lower House
of Indian Parliament) elections earlier this year, and the
Supreme Court is also hearing a public interest litigation
accusing the government of inaction in bringing the money back
to India. PTI MPB
SDE