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Journalism of Courage
Following up on its offer to begin talks with India on amending the double taxation agreement between the two countries,Switzerland on Thursday said it would have no problems in revealing details of Indians allegedly having illegal accounts in Swiss banks if New Delhi came up with specific requests.
Swiss Vice-President Doris Leuthard,who is here to attend the WTO ministerial meeting,said her country was ready to renegotiate the agreement to include tax evasion. If India has a tax evasion case against any of its citizens who happens to have an account in a Swiss bank,then India will be able to get the details of the person after applying through a set procedure, she said.
The first round of talks for renegotiation of the treaty is likely to happen sometime in December. Allegations of Indians having stashed away their black money in Swiss banks to avoid taxes in the country have often rocked Indias politics,most recently during the recent Lok Sabha elections.
Indias efforts to get the details of its citizens having unaccounted money in Swiss banks were intensified last month following a deal reached by Switzerland with the United States under which a leading Swiss bank,UBS,agreed to reveal the details of 4,450 secret accounts to Washington.
Leuthard said there was no double-speak on the part of Switzerland while dealing with similar requests from India. She said the US had come up with specific instances and its requests had been processed. If India came up with similar specific cases with concrete information,Switzerland will be happy to help,she said.
