Swiss account can be accessed only for taxation: Pranab

The revised Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement DTAA signed with Switzerland will allow India access to bank account details of Indians in Swiss banks but they cannot be used for purposes other than taxation,Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee told the Lok Sabha on Tuesday. The new provision of the DTAA will also be effective prospectively,meaning that information relating to past cases cannot be accessed.

I would like to make it quite clear that as far as Swiss laws are concerned they do not give any information of their banking transactions, Mukherjee said while informing Parliament about the amendments that were agreed upon in the existing agreement for avoidance of double taxation between India and Switzerland. Mukherjee inked the agreement with Swiss foreign minister Micheline Calmy Rey on Monday.

BJP leader LK Advani raised the matter of secret money stashed away by Indians in Swiss banks on Tuesday morning after the Finance Minister gave a short statement on the revised DTAA. His views were echoed by others including SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav as well as CPM leader Basudeb Acharya.

We cannot share this information with any other authority,including Parliament. This information cannot even be shared with the Enforcement Directorate, Mukherjee said.

Stating that Swiss laws were very stringent in this regard,he said it was only once in 1945 that an exception was made when the assets of Nazi leaders,who were subjected to Nuremberg trials,were revealed.