Swiss knives out on black money,Cong attacks BJP

“The BJP is claiming that about $ 500 billion to $1,400 billion belonging to Indians has been deposited in Swiss banks. Media reports,however,quoting one annual report of Swiss banking association have put the figure at $ 1500 to $1900 billion. Now,which one is correct? We have checked the official website of Swiss banking association and there is no mention of that annual report there,” Mukherjee said.

“We have asked the Indian ambassador in Switzerland to take up the matter with the Swiss authorities and find out the details of Indian accounts. But my question is: the BJP was in power for six years and what did they do in this regard?” he added.

He asserted that the UPA government was trying to become the member of Financial Action Task Force (FATF) – an international agency comprising many countries that has imposed stringent laws for financial regulations and also share information among themselves about assets of individuals.

“We negotiated with the FATF to become their member but they said our law to check financial irregularities was not stringent enough. So,we made two amendments to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act,passed by the NDA government in 2002,” the minister said.

“According to one amendment,we have set up a Financial Intelligence Unit which has been given the task of collecting information from different banks and financial institutions. We are also entering agreements like Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement with different countries to check money laundering. Here again I ask Mr Advani,what did he do during the six years they were in power except for passing an Act which was toothless,” Mukherjee said.

He also referred to the April 2 resolution of G-20 Summit in London. “Our Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said that we need strong regulations and bringing tax havens under scrutiny. The resolution passed at the (G-20) Summit also said that the era of banking secrecy was over and we need to be open on this issue,” Mukherjee added.