It may well be impossible to get information on black money stashed in foreign banks and tax havens.
Mr Sunil Mitra, Union Finance Secretary, has said that all the upcoming agreements with about 87 countries could get the country access to only to information prospectively.
Referring to double tax avoidance agreement with Switzerland, he said there was no possibility to get retro information from that country.
Citing a US study, he said about $20 billion illicit money went out of India every year. About 70 per cent of such outflows happened because of trade-based under invoicing. Tax authorities had identified Rs 34,000 crore as mispriced last year.
“We have to establish criminality and violation of law (to brand that as black money). This money is in foreign banks which have their own laws of confidentiality,” he said.
Addressing reporters here on Friday, he said the country identified 87 countries for having information exchange treaties to tackle black money problem. “Of them, 50 have been finalised in the last 18 months. These need to be ratified by respective legislatures,” he said.