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New Delhi: Switzerland has handed over the third list of Swiss bank accounts to India. The European country has shared the details of about 33 lakh financial accounts with 96 countries in an annual exercise. Switzerland’s Federal Tax Administration said in a statement that 10 more countries – Antigua and Barbuda, Azerbaijan, Dominica, Ghana, Lebanon, Macau, Pakistan, Qatar, Samoa and Vuatu – were also involved in the exchange of information this year.
Switzerland has shared the list of Swiss bank accounts with 70 countries, while in the case of 26 countries no information has been given. This was because either those countries (14 countries) do not yet meet international requirements on privacy and data security or they did not consider it necessary to acquire the data. However, the FTA did not disclose the names and further details of all 96 countries.
Officials said that India is one of the countries that has received information for the third year in a row and the details of shares with Indian officials are related to accounts of a large number of individuals and companies. The exchange took place last month and Switzerland will share the next list in September 2022. India got the first list from Switzerland under the Automatic Exchange of Information in September 2019. This information was given to 86 countries last year.
According to experts, the AEOI data received by India has been very helpful in building a strong case against those who have huge assets. Information about all types of transactions and properties by Swiss Bank is given. On condition of anonymity, officials said that most of the businessmen’s names are included in this list. These include those NRIs who have now settled in several South-East Asian countries as well as the US, UK and even some African and South American countries.
