India gets 4th set of Swiss bank account details of its nationals

India has received the fourth set of Swiss bank account details of its nationals and organisations as part of an annual automatic information exchange under which Switzerland has shared particulars of nearly 34 lakh financial accounts with 101 countries.

Officials said the new details shared with India pertain to “hundreds of financial accounts”, including many cases of multiple accounts associated with some individuals, corporates and trusts.

They did not divulge specifics, citing the confidentiality clause of the information exchange and the adverse impact it may have on further investigations, but asserted that the data would be used extensively in probes of suspected tax evasion and other wrong doings including of money laundering and terror funding.

In a statement, the Federal Tax Administration (FTA) said that the exchange of information this year saw five new additions to the list — Albania, Brunei Darussalam, Nigeria, Peru and Turkey. The count of financial accounts increased by nearly one lakh.

While the exchange was reciprocal with 74 countries, Switzerland received information but did not provide any in the case of 27 countries, including Russia, either because those countries do not yet meet the international requirements on confidentiality and data security or because they chose not to receive data.