Anti Corruption Movement: A Swiss window to black money the UPA won't look into!

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Ashok Dasgupta.

New Delhi: The UPA government may have gone into overdrive on the black money issue but it has so far failed to use a Swiss tax provision that will allow India to not just estimate how much money its citizens have illegally stashed away in bank accounts in Switzerland but to also earn revenue from them.

The Swiss authorities are unwilling to make these secret accounts public and will only provide foreign governments with details if they can prove an individual account is linked to illegal activity back home. This is an impossibility, since nothing is known about those accounts to begin with. However, Switzerland is prepared to share with foreign governments a portion of the tax levied on the interest that these foreign account holders earn, thereby opening a small window onto a hitherto hidden room.

The European Union was the first to seize this opportunity. Under an agreement between the EU and Switzerland that came into force in 2005, personal savings accounts held by EU nationals in Swiss banks are subject to a retention tax on interest income. Under the agreement, 75 per cent of the revenue so generated is transferred to the respective EU member state governments while the rest is allocated to Switzerland for associated expenditures. Currently, only individual personal accounts are covered, which is seen as a major drawback. The EU is now pressurising Switzerland to extend its provisions to assets other than such bank accounts also.

A very good and practical proposal.  Is UPA upto it?

Full Article at,

http://www.hindu.com/2011/06/04/stories/2011060464131400.htm