Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley requested visiting Economic Affairs Minister of Switzerland, Johann Schneider-Ammann, on Friday to help extend Swiss cooperation in providing evidence about Indians who have unaccounted-for assets and accounts in banks in Switzerland.
“I have made a request to Switzerland to expedite the process of confirmation of the details that we have sought [on black money cases] … now as Switzerland has also agreed to join the mainstream in the fight against unaccounted-for money … as soon as Swiss are ready, India is ready to enter into a bilateral arrangement with Swiss on that effect,” Mr. Jaitley told presspersons after a meeting with Mr. Ammann.
Sharing infoEarlier, Mr. Ammann told presspersons that Switzerland was prepared to follow Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) regulations on the black money issue, and the Swiss Parliament was scheduled to take up during the second half of 2015 changes in laws to look into the possibility of sharing information in cases being investigated on the basis of stolen data of bank accounts.
“Switzerland has decided to follow international standards, including those framed by the OECD, in sharing information and providing assistance to foreign countries investigating such cases, but we have to ask our Parliament to make changes in our laws, but India should take note of the fact that we have a parliamentary process and the Swiss government can only give its proposal,” Mr. Ammann said.
He said that while he agreed that time was a factor, procedures had to be followed. He was responding to a question on the sums held in the accounts of Indians there were dwindling. “Now there is a will to clarify. We can’t say as yet that it would be done or it would be done within such time period. The stolen data issue has to be discussed in Parliament,” he said.
Mr. Ammann, who is on a three-day visit to India, met Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Skills Development Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy on Friday and discussed bilateral trade ties.
Free trade pactIn his meeting with Ms. Sitharaman, he discussed the long-pending Free Trade Agreement between India and the European Free Trade Association, of which Switzerland is a member.
“The negotiations team will continue its discussions and reach some conclusion on sensitive issues such as data protection and IPR [Intellectual Property Rights],” he said indicating no progress was made on the pacts being negotiated.
