New Delhi: India will start getting data on black money and tax evaders from Switzerland only by late 2019.
Swiss President Doris Leuthard said that the Parliament will pass the Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) law by the end of this year and it will be operational in 2019.
During a press statement on her three-day visit to India, she said, “Switzerland is and will be an important financial place. And we have all interest to be transparent, cooperative and reliable partners.”
Switzerland has extended the AEOI to most of the G20 and OECD countries in a bid to improve its image. So far, Switzerland has agreed to the AEOI with 52 partner states including all 28 EU countries.
In his press statement in June 2016 when PM Narendra Modi visited Switzerland, he had said that combating the menace of black money and tax evasion was the shared priority of both the countries.
The two sides discussed the need for an early and expeditious exchange of information to bring to justice the tax offenders. India had highlighted that “an early start to negotiations on the AEOI would be important in this respect”.
AEOI is the new global standard being adopted by about 100 states and financial centres. The standard makes provision for the mutual exchange of information on financial accounts between states that have agreed to the AEOI.
Oxfam had termed Switzerland as one of the worst offenders as far as tax regimes are concerned. Switzerland came just above the likes of known tax havens like Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and the Netherlands. Swiss authorities have been insisting that they are committed to combatting money laundering and tax evasion.
Bringing back black money stashed away in tax havens and cracking down on tax evaders was one of the poll promises of the BJP in the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. The party had even claimed that each Indian will get Rs 15 lakh in their accounts once the black money is recovered.
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