India and Switzerland may soon find a middle ground to the vexed issue of sharing information on specific bank accounts relating to black money stashed by Indians in the Alpine country.
An indication to this effect was given by Finance Minister P Chidambaram in the Capital on Saturday.
India’s efforts to gain banking information were frustrated by Switzerland on the grounds that its domestic laws forbid sharing of information on requests based on ‘stolen data’.
The Indian position, however, was that its requests were not based on unauthorised data and that Switzerland was obliged to share information under the revised double taxation avoidance agreement.
“This is a matter where Swiss minister and I are discussing with each other how information into specific account (relating to black money) can be provided by the Swiss Government to the Indian Government,” Chidambaram said.
Chidambaram also said he had last week received from his Swiss counterpart a reply to the letter shot off by him last month.
“We have got a reply. The minister (Swiss counterpart) has made conciliatory statement in one of the matter. The reply is being studied very carefully and we will send further letter in the next few days,” he said when asked about the status of his letter to his Swiss counterpart Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf last month.
Chidambaram also said it was a long reply and that the Swiss Minister had defended the Swiss position on some issues.
The Indian tax authorities were recently upset that Switzerland was closing the requests made by India on 562 cases, citing their domestic laws for their inability to share details on bank accounts.
The Swiss Government had earlier proposed revision of its domestic law – Swiss Administration Assistance Act – which would have enabled this European nation to provide information to India in the HSBC cases even in respect of the so-called ‘stolen data’.
The proposed revision, however, did not take place due to strong political opposition in Switzerland.
In his two-page letter, Chidambaram had virtually threatened to drag Switzerland to multinational forums like G20 for continuing to block India's information requests.
He had also said India might have to examine further steps under its domestic laws like declaring Switzerland a non-cooperative jurisdiction.
Chidambaram had in that letter come down heavily on the Swiss Government for not honouring the terms of the double taxation avoidance agreement.