Switzerland, September 06: As India and Switzerland prepare to renegotiate the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement, the Swiss government has said it was confident that the pact would be finalised by next year and enable New Delhi to seek details about blackmoney stashed in banks there.
“Yes” was the emphatic answer of Switzerland’s Vice- President Doris Leuthard when asked whether renegotiating the treaty, which was signed in 1995, would enable India seek details of specific cases where tax evaders money was lying in Swiss banks.
She said she was confident of a positive outcome from the talks that are to begin in December. “I think next year this new treaty can be accomplished,” Leuthard, who was here for an informal WTO ministerial, said.
Leuthard said she had “good talks with India on tax matters.”
On Swiss Bankers Association’s (SBA) stance that India was not welcome there on a name-fishing expedition, she said no country in the world would allow such an activity.
–Agencies