Black money in Swiss banks: Why even a determined PM Modi might just fail

FP Staff  Jul 7, 2014 11:45 IST

The BJP has long declared its determination to bring back 'black money' to the country.

The issue was a prominent part of the party's successful Lok Sabha campaign, and newly elected Prime Minister Narendra Modi was so keen to display the seriousness of his intent that he quickly instituted an SIT with the express purpose of hunting down and returning the black money from offshore tax havens and 'Swiss bank accounts'

However, both the SIT itself and the government's plan may have hit a brick wall  that threatens to bring all its efforts to naught.

Last month, newspaper reports announced with great confidence that Switzerland had prepared a list of Indians suspected of stashing un-taxed wealth in Swiss banks and were ready to share it with the Indian government. Today comes news in the Economic Timeshowever that such a list does not in fact exist.First up, there is no 'list' of Indians with illegal offshore accounts.

The earlier report by the PTI news agency quoted an unnamed senior Swiss government official as saying that the "names of these Indian individuals and entities have come under scanner of the Swiss authorities during an ongoing exercise to identify real beneficiary owners of funds held in various banks operating in Switzerland".

Following the publication of the report, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the government would write to Switzerland seeking details of these Indians. He admitted, however, that his ministry was yet to receive official communication in this regard. As it turns out now, it was for good reason.

Meanwhile Justice MB Shah, who is heading the SIT on black money, was also eager to examine the so-called list.

"It isn't a list of only black money, it is a list of those persons who are also legally vested. It is a combined list. We are asking for the list of the said persons. Then we will verify. Then action is taken. If it is legal we cannot do anything, If it is illegal or unaccounted money then we take action. It depends on which manner the amount is deposited," Shah told CNN-IBN.

However, Mario Tuor, head of communications, SIF, tells ET Magazine, "The letter from Indian authorities asks for additional information on a list prepared by the Swiss authorities. We cannot give information on a non-existing list."

ET adds that Switzerland has long been refusing to share details about the Indians named in a so-called 'HSBC list', which contains names of Indian and other foreign customers who have stashed their black money in its Swiss branch. According to the report:

"This was stolen by a bank employee and later found its way to tax authorities in various countries, including India. To this, Tuor said there is no global standard to provide assistance based on information illegally obtained"

India has amended the terms of its Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) with Switzerland to ensure that it receives information on banking in addition to taxes,  and  the Swiss government has asserted that it is"looking forward to working together with the new government of India in its fight against tax evasion." But the lack of progress makes clear, much of this means little in terms of actionable information.

So the 'breakthrough' that was being trumpeted has turned out to be yet another mirage.

Then there are those who argue that getting the Swiss to cough up the names of black money offenders is hardly worth the effort.  In an interview with the Times of India, Professor Arun Kumar, an expert on black money points out that while 'black money' is a reality, the bulk of it is right here in India and not overseas.

"First of all, I think going after just the foreign component of black money is a diversion. The bulk of the money is right here in the country! It is very difficult to get money out of foreign tax havens unless someone has been really stupid. Let me clarify that all Indians with foreign accounts are not criminals", he said.

Professor Kumar added that any 'list' of Indians given by the Swiss (or for that matter any other) government was also likely to be highly misleading, as it was unlikely that the accounts would be opened under the real names of the account holders.

"No amount of agreements to avoid double taxation or information sharing will yield information on real account holders. There are devious means by which money is transferred through several layers of shell companies. If you ask a Swiss bank, they might tell you the 'names' they have but these are not the real people. It will require a great deal of meticulous work here to get the right persons. This is what the US did in the case of its citizens who had stashed money in UBS. They prepared a case in US and presented it to the Swiss. That's what India should do."

That would be one step. The other would be, as Kumar points out, to start tracking and recovering the vast hoards of black money being stored closer to home -- usually in that glitzy new real estate development coming up in your neighbourhood.