India to zero in on Swiss accounts: FM

NEW DELHI: A day after the Swiss Bankers Association said they wouldn't divulge details of their Indian clients, India said it was not interested in a ``fishing expedition'' of details of money stashed with them but will work on specific cases.

``They (Swiss Bankers Association) have not refused (to divulge information). They have suggested they are not for fishing and we are also not interested in fishing their whole list (of bank accounts),'' Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters late Monday night.

Mukherjee said India would like to follow the pattern set by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and work on specific information with the Swiss banks. India is currently engaged in negotiations on double taxation avoidance treaties with a large number of countries, including Switzerland, he said.

Earlier in the day, Mukherjee said he had read newspaper reports on SBA's statement and that he would look into the matter.

SBA's head of international communications, James Nason, had said, ``Swiss law and even OECD's model tax convention do not permit fishing expeditions, that is, indiscriminate trawling through bank accounts in the hope of finding something interesting.''

``This means India cannot simply throw its telephone book at Switzerland and ask if any of these people have a bank account here,'' he added.

Following the statement, the government faced criticism from opposition parties for not
properly pursuing efforts to unearth illegal money stashed away in Switzerland. Both BJP and CPM said it was the government's job to get details of Indians who have stashed away illegal money there.