Govt acting on black money details from other countries

Under pressure to act fast on bringing back black money stashed abroad, the government on Tuesday said information regarding assets and payments received by Indian citizens in several countries had started flowing in. In a written reply, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee told the Rajya Sabha the details were under different stages of processing and investigation.

In large number of cases, he said, information had been obtained under the double tax avoidance agreement.

“The directorate of transfer pricing has detected ‘mispricing’ of Rs 34,145 crore in the last two financial years, against ‘mispricing’ of Rs 14,655 crore in the earlier five years,” he said.

The government had formulated a five-pronged strategy to bring back black money, he said. The strategy comprises joining the global crusade against black money, creation of an appropriate legislative framework, setting up of institutions for dealing with illicit funds, developing systems for implementation and imparting skills to the manpower for effective action. According to the information available on the website of the Swiss National Bank, he said, the total liability of Swiss banks towards Indians, including in the fiduciary business, had declined in the last five years.

The Swiss banks’ liabilities towards Indians as of total liabilities declined to 0.13 per cent in 2010 from 0.29 per cent in 2006. Total liabilities of these banks towards Indians stood at 1,945 million CHF (Rs 9,295 crore) in 2010, against 6,462 million CHF (Rs 23,373 crore) in 2006. The finance minister said part of the deposits in Swiss banks might be related to legitimate business.