The Government has received information on some Swiss Bank deposits of
The Finance Minister said, whenever information about money deposited in any foreign bank accounts is obtained, the same is first verified and then action is taken in accordance with the law to bring the undisclosed amount to taxation. He said, the information received under Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) is covered by the confidentiality provision of the DTAA.
Meanwhile, in reply to a separate question, Minister of State for Finance, S S Palanimanickam said, currently India has DTAA with 80 countries, while it has signed Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) with five nations. DTAA and TIEA are the two instruments through which information can be obtained from other nations. The minister said in his written reply, the government is in the process of amending pacts with a host of countries to get information from banks. He said, the government had identified 22 priority countries for negotiations of TIEAs. Negotiations have been completed with 16 countries.
To a query on whether the investigations against the persons who are having bank accounts in Liechtenstein have been concluded, the minister said the total income assessed for 18 individual beneficiaries was 39.66 crore and the total tax demand raised was 24.26 crore rupees. He said, prosecution proceedings for tax evasion have been initiated in the case of 17 individuals and information relating to these cases has been handed over to the CBI and Enforcement Directorate.