Black money: Switzerland seeks 'concrete' info

Switzerland on Thursday said it would look into India's request for tracing black money stashed in tax havens in that country if "concrete information" was provided by New Delhi in specific cases.

"We follow international norms. If you have concrete information like name of the bank and other specific details, then there should be no problem," the vice president of Switzerland Doris Leuthard said in New Delhi.

Leuthard, who is also Minister of Economic Affairs, said India will have to apply through legal procedures based on the existing double taxation avoidance treaty which was signed in 1995.

"You can apply through the legal procedure based on the existing treaties," she said.

Leuthard, who is here to participate at the WTO ministerial meeting, said the secrecy shield was created by Swiss banks to protect their interests from other regimes in Europe.

The Swiss Bankers Association (SBA) last month had said that India is not welcome there on a name-fishing expedition.

Following SBA's comments, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had said New Delhi was not interested in any fishing expedition of details of money stashed with them but will work on specific cases.

Asked why Switzerland is not entertaining India's request when it has already given account details of a large number people to the US government, Leuthard said there have been specific requests from Washington on which informations were given.

Last month, the US reached an agreement with Switzerland under which top Swiss bank UBS AG turned over details of 4,450 secret accounts to the Internal Revenue Service.

India is scheduled to begin talks with Switzerland in December for amending the avoidance of double taxation agreement with respect to the exchange of information.

The issue of Indians stashing away money in Swiss tax havens came into prominence during the Lok Sabha elections and the Opposition and the government traded charges on the issue. The government recently said that it has approached Switzerland seeking details about bank accounts held by Indians there.