ZURICH: Indias fight against black money has got a major boost with Switzerland putting together a list of Indians suspected to have stashed away un-taxed wealth in Swiss banks and the details are being shared with the Indian government.
The latest official data released by Switzerlands central banking authority- Swiss National Bank (SNB) shows that Indian money in Swiss banks rose by 43 percent during 2013 to close to Rs14,000 crore (2.03 billion Swiss francs), pushing its global ranking up from 70th at the end of 2012 to 58, whereas Pakistan, has slipped from 69th earlier to 74th now, as its total exposure to Swiss banks declined from 1.44 billion Swiss francs at the end of 2012 to 1.23 billion Swiss francs in 2013.
The names of Indian individuals and entities with Swiss bank accounts reportedly came under the scanner of Swiss authorities during an ongoing exercise to identify real beneficiary owners of funds held in various banks operating in Switzerland, a senior Swiss government official said. “These individuals and entities are suspected to have held un-taxed money in Swiss banks through structures like trusts, domiciliary companies and other legal entities based out of countries other than India,” the official told PTI.
He refused to divulge the identity of these persons and entities, as also the quantum of funds held by them in Swiss banks, citing the confidentiality clause of the bilateral information exchange treaty between two countries.
The official further said Swiss authorities were very keen to work with the new government in India and they would also provide all necessary support to the newly set up special investigation team (SIT) on black money.
He, however, dismissed claims that black money stashed in Swiss banks by Indians could be trillions of dollars, as the latest Swiss National Bank data pegs the total foreign client money across 283 banks in Switzerland at $1.6 trillion.
When asked about the rise in Indian exposure to Swiss banks at 2.03 billion Swiss francs (Rs 14,000 crore), he said these are the funds held by clients who have declared themselves as Indian and therefore were unlikely to be ill-gotten wealth.
The official speaking on condition of anonymity said, the details are being shared with India on a ‘spontaneous’ basis and are different from the information sought earlier by the Indian authorities on the basis of ‘leaked’ or ‘stolen’ lists of certain banks, including the so-called ‘HSBC list’.
The Nation reports that the UK has retained its top position, with the highest share of close to 20 per cent of global wealth parked in the Swiss banking system, followed by the US, West Indies, Germany and Guernsey in the top-five in terms of exposure to banks in Switzerland.
The rankings are based on the direct client exposure as also the funds held through fiduciaries or wealth managers with a total of 283 banks in Switzerland. China continues to rank higher than India, although it has slipped by four places to 30th. Among other major emerging economies, Brazil, Russia and South Africa are also ranked higher than India, whose 58th position continues to remain the lowest among major economies across the world.
The countries ranked below India include Philippines, Kazakhstan, Bahrain, Iran, Pakistan, Mauritius, Bangladesh, Palestine, Barbados, Macau SAR, Iraq, Brunei and Zimbabwe.
Among top-ranked, UK has the highest exposure of 277 billion Swiss francs, followed by the US (193 billion Swiss francs), West Indies (100 billion Swiss francs), Germany (52.4 billion Swiss francs) and Guernsey (49.6 billion Swiss francs).
In top-20, they are followed by Luxembourg, Jersey, Bahamas, France, Panama, Cayman Islands, Hong Kong, Singapore, Italy, Japan, Russia, UAE, Netherlands, Saudi Arabia and Australia.
However, only a few countries account for the bulk of global money in Swiss banks and there are only 18 countries whose exposure stands at one percent or more. Even among these, only the UK and the US have exposure of more than 10 percent, at about 20 percent and 14 percent respectively. The UK, the US and West Indies have retained their top-3 positions. Germany and Luxembourg have moved up two and three ranks respectively, while Jersey and France have come down.
The Swiss government has been refusing to share details about the Indians named in the HSBC list, which was stolen by a bank employee and later found its way to tax authorities in various countries including India.
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