Piyush Goyal: Swiss Bank deposits info will be available as of 2018

Data of money deposited by Indians in Swiss banks will be available to the government under an agreement signed with Switzerland for automatic exchange of information, Interim Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said on Friday.

The agreement for automatic exchange of information was signed between Switzerland and India last November under which both countries would start collecting data in accordance with the global standards in 2018 and exchange it from 2019, Goyal told reporters here on the sidelines of an Institute of Cost Accountants of India event. He was responding to media questions on latest data released by the Swiss National Bank showing a rise in Indian deposits last year.

“Under an agreement signed by the Modi government with Switzerland, all this data from the period January 1, 2018, will be made available to us,” Goyal said.

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“From what I understand (from media reports) 40 per cent increase in foreign remittances are on account of the Reserve Bank’s Liberalised Remittance Scheme brought during the previous (UPA) government under which a resident Indian can remit $250,000 per year,” he said. “Then there are also non-resident deposits in this. Rest assured, if there is any wrongdoing revealed, we will take action. With the various measures of this government against black money, Swiss bank deposits have been decreasing,” he added.

The data showed that after falling for three years in succession, money parked by Indians in Swiss banks rose 50 per cent to Swiss Franc 1.02 billion in 2017 over the previous year. Over the last three years among the measures taken by the Indian government to combat black money include the enactment of Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015, the Income Declaration Scheme in 2016 and the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana last year.