India receives second set of Swiss Bank Account Details

October 10, 2020

On October 9, 2020, India received second set of Swiss bank details under the “Automatic Exchange Pact” signed with Switzerland. The pact was a key milestone of GoI in its fight back against black money.

Highlights

India is one among 86 countries with which Switzerland exchanges information on financial accounts. In 2019, India received its first set of details from Switzerland. The Switzerland Federal Tax Administration has provided details of 3.1 million financial accounts.

Some of the details of the received information relate to entities set up by Indians in foreign jurisdictions such as British Virgin Islands, Panama and Cayman Islands. These individuals were mostly politicians, businessmen and royals and their family members.

Automatic Exchange Pact

According to the agreement, the Swiss Bank shares details such as account information, identification, financial information such as name, address, tax identification number and country of residence. The information obtained from the Swiss Bank will help tax authorities to verify if Indian taxpayers have declared their financial accounts correctly.

However, the Swiss Banks do not share quantum of assets held by Indians citing confidentiality clauses.

The Swiss Authorities have already shared information of more than 100 Indian citizens under the agreement

Ranking

India was at 77^th rank in terms money held by Indians with Swiss Bank by the end of 2019. UK was at the top. The countries were ranked based on Swiss National Bank data. In 2018, India was at 74^th position.

Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange Information for Tax Purposes

In accordance to the forum, around 38 countries supply data to Switzerland. In 2018, 36 countries shared information with Switzerland. The Automatic Exchange of Information Agreement signed by Switzerland with several other countries and its implementation is reviewed by this Global Forum.