India gets 2nd tranche of Swiss bank a/c details

New Delhi: India has got the second set of Swiss bank account details of its nationals and entities under the automatic exchange of information pact with Switzerland, marking a key milestone in the government's fight against black money allegedly stashed abroad. India is among the 86 countries with which Switzerland's Federal Tax Administration (FTA) has exchanged information on financial accounts within the framework of global standards on AEOI this year.

India had received the first set of details from Switzerland in September 2019 under AEOI (Automatic Exchange of Information), when it involved 75 countries.The information exchange this year involved nearly 3.1 million (31 lakh) financial accounts, FTA said in a statement on Friday. The number of such accounts was similar in 2019. While the statement did not explicitly name India among the 86 countries, officials said that India is among the prominent countries with which Switzerland has shared details about financial accounts of clients of Swiss banks and various other financial institutions.

The officials further said a "sizeable number" relates to Indian citizens and entities in the overall exchange of information about over three million financial accounts by Switzerland this year with 86 countries.

Besides, Swiss authorities have already shared information about more than 100 Indian citizens and entities in the past one year on receipt of requests for administrative assistance in cases involving probes into financial wrongdoings including tax evasion, the officials added.

These cases mostly relate to older accounts that might have been closed before 2018, for which Switzerland has shared details with India under an earlier framework of mutual administrative assistance as Indian authorities had provided prima facie evidence of tax-related wrongdoing by those account holders.

AEOI is applicable only to accounts that are active or were closed during 2018. Some of these cases relate to entities set up by Indians in various overseas jurisdictions like Panama, British Virgin Islands and Cayman Islands, while the individuals include mostly businessmen and a few politicians and erstwhile royals as well as their family members.

The officials, however, refused to share details about the exact number of accounts or the quantum of assets held in the accounts held by Indians, for which the information has been shared with India, citing strict confidentiality clauses governing the exchange framework.