Govt to expedite efforts to get black money info

The government plans to speed up the process of entering into agreements with various countries for seeking information on black money, after getting details of 50 Indians who stashed away money in a European bank, from Germany.

"The strategy for speeding up the process of exchange of information with countries is likely to come up in the annual conference of chief commissioners on June 9 and 10," said a senior official of the finance ministry. "There will be efforts to find a way in which information can be exchanged more easily and utilised better," he added.

India has information exchange agreements with some countries as part of the double taxation avoidance agreement (DTAA). However, not all the 79 DTAAs have the information exchange clause.

The government has written to as many as 65 countries for amending the DTAAs to insert information exchange clauses as per the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) norms to help curb tax evasion. Article 26 in the OECD model tax convention refers to exchange of information related to taxation.

As of now, the government has completed negotiations with Switzerland, Bermuda and the Bahamas on amending the bilateral taxation pacts to seek information about funds parked in those countries.

The Income Tax department is in possession of details received from German authorities of some 50 persons who parked their black money in LGT Bank in Liechtenstein, a tax haven. It has already served them notices.