India urges ratification of DTAA with Switzerland

India will have to wait for another nine months to get information from Switzerland on money stashed by Indians in Swiss banks.

The India government today asked the Swiss government to expedite the ratification of the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) signed between the two countries in August 2010, but the Swiss Parliament will take time to ratify the tax treaty.

“The status is DTAA is in Parliamentarian process in Switzerland. We are running through this process in the next couple of months... We will be ready by Swiss side to conclude the agreement before the end of this year,” Johann N Schneider-Ammann, Head of Federal Department of Economic Affairs in Switzerland told reporters.

He said the new tax agreement would help in enhancing partnership between the two countries and also resolve the issues concerning black money. “We do want to solve issues around the black money. I can tell you Switzerland is very much interested...We respect all the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) prime conditions,” he added.

The amended DTAA will facilitate exchange of information between the two countries, especially banking information in specific cases. India has already completed the formalities for implementation of the revised DTAA.

Earlier in the day, Schneider-Ammann called on Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in his office at North Block. Mukherjee said the ratification of the DTAA needed to be expedited by the Swiss government.

He said this would put the institutional framework in place and further strength the economic relationship between the two nations. The minister also added that India and Switzerland have a stronger bilateral relationship and there was a big potential to further strengthen this relationship specially in the field of trade and investment.

Schneider-Ammann said the ratification of the DTAA by the Swiss Parliament would be expedited, but to encourage investment by Swiss Companies there was a need for further opening of insurance and the banking sectors in India.