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Jan 24, 2011
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Unearthing Indian black money in Switzerland
The Government of India has signed a Protocol with the Government of Switzerland in August 2010 for the purpose of amending the Tax Treaty between the Swiss Confederation and the Republic of India. The protocol has been signed with the intent to enable the Government of India to access the accounts maintained in the Swiss banks by the Indian tax evaders and to gather such other informations as may be necessary to tax the unaccounted money stashed in Switzerland. The Government of India took note about the money kept by the Indian tax eva-ders in Swiss Banks, which is estimated at around $462 billion. The effort of the government is to bring the money back to India and also to collect due taxes which might have been evaded. However, this protocol which was intended to take effect from 01st Jan, 2011 has not entered into force yet, since the entire legal requirements and other procedures which are necessary for giving effect to the amending protocol have not been notified by the Governments of the contracting States. The amendment is still to be approved by the Swiss Parliament. The above step of the Government has been widely acclaimed by the public at large. Infact, a Public Interest Petition is also being heard by the Hon’ble Supreme Court these days where the Apex Court has taken this problem very seriously and has questioned the government by observing “it is a pure and simple theft of the national money. We are talking about mind-boggling crime. We are not on the niceties of various treaties”.
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http://www.business-standard.com
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