The data can be useful for establishing a prosecution case
against those who had any unaccounted wealth in those accounts, as it provides
details of deposits and transfers and of all earnings.
New Delhi/Berne: As India prepares to analyse troves of Swiss banking
details of its citizens, a large portion of the first tranche of data being
shared by Switzerland under an automatic information exchange framework this
month relates to accounts that have been already closed due to fear of action,
bankers and regulatory officials said.
However, the data that was prepared by all
Switzerland-based banks under a direction from the Swiss government for
despatching further to the Indian authorities provides full details of the
entire flow of funds to and from all the accounts that were active even for a
single day in the year 2018, bankers said.
The data can be quite useful for establishing a strong
prosecution case against those who had any unaccounted wealth in those accounts,
as it provides entire details of deposits and transfers as well as of all
earnings including through investments in securities and other asset classes,
they said.
On condition of anonymity, several bankers and regulatory
officials said the details being shared relate mostly to businessmen, including
non-resident Indians now settled in several South-East Asian countries as well
as in the US, the UK and even some African and South American countries.
Bankers admitted there was a huge outflow from these accounts in
the last few years after a global crackdown began against the so-called
high-secrecy walls associated with the Swiss banks and several of these
accounts got closed.
However, the Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) mechanism
provides that details are being shared with India even for those accounts that
were closed in 2018.
Besides, there are at least 100 cases of older accounts held by
Indians, which might have been closed before 2018, for which Switzerland is in
the process of sharing details with India under an earlier framework of mutual
administrative assistance as Indian authorities had provided prima facie
evidence of tax-related wrongdoings by those account holders.
These relate to people engaged in businesses like auto
components, chemicals, textiles, real estate, diamond and jewellery, steel
products etc.
Regulatory and government
officials said the special focus of the analysis of the Swiss bank data could
be on identifying people with political links.
A Swiss delegation was in India late last month before the first
set of details could get shared under the new automatic information exchange,
while the two sides also discussed possible steps to expedite execution of tax
information sharing requests made by India in specific cases and enhancing of
collaboration in offshore tax compliance matters.
The AEOI is being seen as a major boost in India's fight against
suspected black money stashed abroad.
The details that Switzerland will be sharing with Indian tax
authorities under this framework would include account numbers, credit balance
and all kinds of financial income for each Indian client of every Swiss
financial institution.
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