We have done more than what US, UK have done

Union Home Minister P Chidambaram today claimed that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government had “done more than any other country” to unearth money in Swiss and other foreign banks, lodged there by individuals to evade taxes.

“As soon as I saw the newspaper report (about the LTG Bank), I contacted the German government and sought its help. The government also promptly invoked a legislation to do away with the problems of double taxation with Germany. I will say some progress have been made,” Chidambaram said at a press conference today.

“To know the current position you have to ask the current finance minister, but I can say there is progress in the matter. We have done more than what the US and the UK have done,” Chidambaram said.

The home minister took a dig at the BJP and its allies like the Janata Dal (United) that have raised the issue in the run-up to the general elections. “If my memory serves me right, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government too had a home minister and a finance minister for six years.

What did they do during that period? And I must humbly say to the BJP, Wikipedia (an online encyclopedia that puts the figure of Indian money in Swiss banks at Rs 25 lakh crore) can’t be the basis of political allegations,” he said. This is the figure senior BJP leader LK Advani had cited.

On February 29, 2008, the finance ministry had written to the Federal Central Tax Office in Bonn to seek information about Indians who may have accounts with Liechtenstein’s LGT Bank. This was following the sale of bank data by an employee to the government of Germany that revealed details of money parked in the bank by individuals to escape tax scrutiny.