India on Tuesday said it is actively pursuing enforcing the amended tax treaty with Switzerland soon so that information on bank deposits in that country can be obtained in specific cases, Minister of State for Finance S S Palanimanickam said.
"The matter is being actively pursued for early entry into force of the amended DTAA (Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement). After entry into force of the amended DTAA, India will be able to obtain banking information in specific cases from Switzerland," Palanimanickam told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply.
In terms of the existing DTAA between India and Swiss Confederation, it has not been possible to obtain information regarding bank deposits in Switzerland, he said. "Hence Switzerland was approached in April, 2009 for re-negotiation of the Article concerning Exchange of Information in our existing DTAA so that we can have access to banking information," the Minister said.
He said Switzerland agreed to re-negotiate this Article as well as others in the existing DTAA.
"The first round of negotiation was held on November 10-12, 2009," Palanimanickam said. To another query, he said the Financial Intelligence Unit in the ministry does not propose to collect directly and analyse data on the abuse of DTAA by overseas investors. In another reply, he said it is difficult for the government to locate the sources of generation of black money as most such transactions are unrecorded.
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