The Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that India has no authentic estimate of the black money kept by Indians and enterprises in the Swiss banks.
Sitharaman while replying to a question in Lok Sabha said that some of the media reports have stated that the deposits by Indians in Swiss banks, including through India-based branches, have reduced by nearly 6 percent in 2018.
“The Government is taking persistent measures to detect and tax the unaccounted income and assets of Indians in Switzerland, which include Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) and Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information under which India will receive the information of financial accounts held by Indian residents in Switzerland for 2018 and subsequent years, on an automatic basis beginning September 2019,” she said.
At various international summits like G20 and BRICS, India has called for co-operation among different countries to fight corruption, Sitharaman said.
“Leaders also agreed to renew commitment to pursue high-level international cooperation between G20 members in the fight against corruption. In a joint statement on BRICS Leaders’ Informal Meeting on the margins of the G20 Summit, BRICS members agreed to promote international anti-corruption cooperation and strengthening of legal frameworks,” she stated.
Sitharaman further assured that the government is taking and has taken several concrete steps by introducing stringent laws to crack down black money in and outside the country.
“In order to lay down measures to deter economic offenders from evading the process of Indian law by remaining outside the jurisdiction of Indian courts, the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018 was passed by the Parliament,” the Finance Minister said.
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