Switzerland to share secret bank account details with India: envoy

Switzerland is willing to share the details of the secret bank accounts held there by Indians if the Indian government approaches it through the framework of the revised double taxation avoidance treaty.

Philippe Welti, Switzerland's ambassador to India, told a television channel that Indian assets worth at least $2 billion (about Rs.10,000 crore) are parked in Swiss banks. But this is way below the figures suspected by many in India. BJP leader L K Advani had estimated it to be in the range of Rs25,000 crore to Rs75,000 crore, while others have said it could be as high as $1.5 trillion dollars.

Welti's remarks come on a day when his government signed an agreement with Germany, ending a dispute over tax evasion by Germans. Switzerland has been virtually forced to enter into deals with many leading economies in the developed world over the stashing of illegal wealth in its secret bank accounts.

The US recently forced Switzerland to reveal the names of American holders of secret bank accounts. The British government succeeded in getting Switzerland to impose a tax – ranging from 19 per cent to 34 per cent – on interest earned by British citizens holding secret accounts in the country. While Switzerland will not reveal the identities of the account holders, it will transfer the tax to the UK.

A spokesperson of the Swiss central bank had in July revealed that the liabilities of Swiss banks towards Indian account holders had come down to $2.5 billion in 2010 from $3 billion in 2008, reflecting a flight of illegal Indian wealth from the European nation to other tax havens in the world.

India signed a double-taxation avoidance treaty with Switzerland in August 2010 and the parliaments of both nations ratified it. In Switzerland, the treaty was left open for scrutiny by its citizens for a period of 100 days, which ends on October 6, and the treaty comes into force the next day. Indian president Pratibha Patil is visiting Switzerland on October 3 and 4.