The "door for dialogue with India remains open despite the current “difficult environment” on tax-related information sharing front, the Swiss Finance Ministry has said in a recent report.
In the just released annual report on International Financial and Tax Matters 2015, Switzerland has admitted that its relations with India remains tense due to the Alpine country’s refusal to exchange information on requests based on “data obtained illegally”.
The declaration that the “door for dialogue remains open" is significant as it comes at a time when the Indian Government is stepping up its fight against tax evasion and fraud.
The annual report put out by the Swiss Finance Ministry also highlighted that the October 15 meeting (between Indian and Swiss revenue authorities) last year at Berne happened on Switzerland’s initiative.
This bilateral meeting — which the annual report noted, happened in a positive atmosphere — had ended with a joint statement identifying the basis for solutions concerning the bilateral issues under discussion, according to the Swiss Finance Ministry (Federal Department of Finance).
NEW LEAKED HSBC LIST
The bilateral relations between Switzerland and India on tax matters have once again come to the centre stage with the new leaked HSBC list of Swiss bank account holders from 200 countries.
In 2011, the French Government had handed over (shared) to the Indian Government a list of 628 Indians holding Swiss bank accounts.
The French Government had obtained this list of Indians with Swiss bank accounts from a former HSBC employee who had turned a whistleblower.
Citing local laws, the Swiss Government had refused to share with India information on these accountholders on the ground that requests were based on “data obtained illegally”.
Besides this list of 628 Indians, the names of another 567 Indians with Swiss bank accounts have become public on Monday.
This has happened due to the efforts of an international body of journalists, International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).