Swiss bank to share black money data with India

New Delhi: Switzerland on June 16, 2017, agreed to an automatic exchange of financial account information with India and 40 other jurisdictions to facilitate immediate sharing of details about suspected black money.

The Swiss Federal Council which is the top governing body of the European nation said the implementation is planned for 2018 and the first set of data should be exchanged in 2019. The Indian government will be notified soon about the exact date from which the automatic exchange would begin, reported The Hindu.

As per the draft notification, there should be no further procedural delay in its implementation. The issue of black money has been a matter of great debate in India and Switzerland has been long perceived as one of the safest havens for the illicit wealth allegedly stashed abroad by Indians.

The Council said the proposal to introduce AEOI (a global convention for automatic information exchange on tax matters) with India and others “met with widespread approval from the interested parties who voiced their opinions in the consultations”.

“In concrete terms, the AEOI will be activated with each individual state or territory by means of a specific federal decree within the framework of this dispatch,” it added.

The Council said it will prepare a situation report before the first exchange of data, which is planned for autumn 2019.

“In the process, it will be checked whether the states and territories concerned effectively meet the requirements of the standard, especially those concerning confidentiality and data security.

“It is important for the Federal Council that a level playing field be created among states and that all major financial centres, in particular, be included. This year, Switzerland has introduced the AEOI with 38 states and territories, including all EU member states, and data will start to be exchanged with them in 2018,” it added.