Black money: India wants new information from Switzerland on HSBC accounts

NEW DELHI: In a rush to beat the March 31 fiscal year-end deadline, India has shot off fresh requests for information from Switzerland on some HSBC account holders alleged to be holding black money there, leveraging the more flexible information-sharing agreement signed with the European nation last month.

It has also sent inquiry reports on the respective account holders to demonstrate that the government is already on their trail. “Information exchange in the new regime has started… we have sent requests in some cases,” said a finance ministry official. “These requests are now accompanied with a detailed write-up on the investigation carried out by Indian authorities.”

Switzerland’s cooperation will act as a shot in the arm for the ongoing investigations and help tax authorities build stronger cases. Income tax authorities have to complete investigations and assessments by the end of current financial year in line with the commitment given to the Supreme Court and also because the cases will become time-barred after that.

A number of these cases had got stuck as Switzerland stonewalled all queries from India citing its banking secrecy laws that prevented information exchange on the basis of what was said to be stolen data. India had received the list of account holders in the Geneva branch of HSBC from France through a bilateral treaty. It has been widely reported that the list originated from information stolen by a disgruntled HSBC Geneva employee in 2011.

There was a breakthrough in the deadlock when India signed informationsharing deal with Switzerland in October. Switzerland agreed to validate authenticity of bank documents besides providing banking as well as non-banking information in a time-bound manner i requests were supported by documents showing investigations were being conducted independently into the respective entities, such as those on HSBC list, by Indian tax authorities. Indians are legally allowed to hold bank accounts overseas but the money should be tax paid and disclosed to local authorities.