Reportedly the Finance Ministry has declined to share swiss bank accounts details of indians saying it is covered under "confidentiality provisions" of a tax treaty signed between india and Switzerland. Meanwhile in reply to an RTI query, the ministry also refused to disclose the details of black money received from other foreign countries.
Accordingly "Information exchanged under such tax agreements is covered under confidentiality provisions of respective agreements. Thus, disclosure of tax related information and information sought/obtained from foreign governments is exempted under section 8 (1) (a) and 8 (1) (f) of the Right to Information (RTI) Act," it said in response to the RTI application filed by this PTI journalist. The ministry was asked to provide the details of information received from switzerland related to accounts of indians in banks there. It was also asked to provide the details of information received from foreign countries on black money, including details of such cases shared with India.
Apparently india had in september got the first set of swiss bank account details of its nationals under a new automatic information exchange pact. india is among 75 countries with which Switzerland's Federal Tax Administration (FTA) has exchanged information on financial accounts within the framework of global standards on AEOI or Automatic Exchange of Information and it is feared that many indians might have closed their accounts after a global crackdown on black money led to switzerland buckling under international pressure to open its banking sector for scrutiny to clear the long-held perception of swiss banks being safe haven for undisclosed funds. Perhaps the findings of these reports were made public by the Standing Committee on Finance in its preliminary report submitted in the parliament in march this year.
