Armed with information, including banking data, on secret bank accounts of citizens made available to the authorities from 10 countries, the Finance Ministry on Wednesday said that the effects of the crusade against black money would appear in the next five years.
Interacting with the media on the sidelines of the global conference on ‘Tax and inequality' here, Finance Secretary R.S. Gujral said: “About 10 countries have provided us automatic information and action is being initiated … Yes, it does include banking information”.
Though India has long been pitching for greater global cooperation in the exchange of banking information and sharing of past data, Mr. Gujral said it would still take some time to produce tangible results in this regard. “The issue of how well it [exchange of banking information] will address the question of black money being siphoned off abroad, I think the next five years will show the results”.
With regard to Mauritius, Mr. Gujral said the government had sought information from that country relating to individual cases and on obtaining “certain information”, action was being taken. He said the issue with Mauritius was with regard to capital gains tax and the tax treaty with the island nation was being revisited.
“We are seeking to amend 75 of our DTAAs [double taxation avoidance agreements] and we are seeking to enter into 17 TIEAs [tax information exchange agreements],” he said. However, he pointed out that some countries were still not willing to share past information and agreeing for automatic exchange of information, even though the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) was pressing for them.
