Kolkata: Automatic information exchange would help India and Switzerland to contain stashing of black money in Swiss banks, Ambassador of Switzerland to India and Bhutan Linus Von Castelmur said on Monday. "For the future, I think the solution will be expected on automatic information exchange so that each and every Swiss bank and each and every Indian bank accepting money from a national from the other state would have to report to the concerned state," he said at an interactive session.
"If full expansive information exchange, which is the standard, which will be developed, implemented by Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development and with India and Switzerland joining in ... I think in future the problem will be solved," he said at the programme organised by CII, Eastern Region.
"We still have international obligations due to many countries, including India. We also have our rule of law... What happened in the '70s, in the '80s, in the '90s it happened we have to find out," he added.
On the illegal money stashed in Swiss banks, Castelmur said: "It's obviously difficult to deal with the past. You can change the future but you never can change the past. Yes Switzerland had a banking secrecy law and it still exists. But we are in a procedure of changing it completely.
"India was almost a socialist country which was not extremely friendly to entrepreneurs... So yes there was some money in the '60s, the '70s, the '80s, the '90s which went to Switzerland account," he stated. On Switzerland cooperating with the Indian government in sharing tax-related informations the Swiss official said: "If the Indian tax authority, the finance ministry comes with request or a judicial official or administrative official requests to beat out information about an illegal stashing of money and seeks Swiss support it would get it."
"But they would have to do research on the role of the ED. They would have to work on that. What we cannot accept on our side if it is stolen data," he added. Castelmur said at the beginning information was not obtained by legal means but Switzerland has granted on many requests sent by Indian tax authorities.
"We can find some practical solutions not only for the future because that will be done, but also for the past and handle it very pragmatically." Castlemur also said he wondered why it was only the Swiss banks which were held responsible for stashing illegal money though several banks in the US, Singapore, Hong Kong were into the same practice.
"It's like a myth that money are stacked in Swiss banks. But why people are not asking about money stashed in Singapore, Hong Kong, in the US, in Virgin islands. Why are not people talking about the real estate in India. Probably my feeling it is in parts of Delhi's Vasant Vihar," he alleged.
In August this year India had asked Switzerland to join the Early Adopter Group mandating an automatic exchange of information among the countries involved in the group. A request was also been made to Switzerland for entering into a Competent Authority Agreement on Automatic Exchange of Information as per the new global standards to enhance further cooperation between India and Switzerland in tax matters, Minister of State for Finance Nirmala Sitharaman had said in a written reply to Rajya Sabha in August.
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