Lakshmi
Mittal, the CEO and Chairman of ArcelorMittal. The Swiss bank accounts
of India's richest now under scrutiny. Mittal is India's second richest
man. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)
Within a week of India’s second richest man, Lakshmi Mittal, complaining that the Indian government was too slow in permitting the construction of new steel mills, Mittal’s home country has guys like him in the cross-hairs.
The Finance Ministry is close to inking a deal with the Swiss government to end the decades long secrecy to secret, undeclared bank accounts of the super rich.
Once in effect, the agreement will be a big boost to India’s attempts to bring billions of dollars of cash hidden away by locals in Swiss banks accounts. The Finance Ministry said in a statement it would approach the Swiss government to seek information under the ‘liberal interpretation of the identity requirements for providing information’ agreed to in the reworked Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement signed between the two countries.
The Economic Times reported on Tuesday that such a move removes a key hurdle in transnational financial information exchange with Switzerland. “The conditions will enable India to get information even if we have only limited details about the person with bank accounts in Switzerland,” the Finance Ministry said in a release on Monday, disclosing the details of the agreement signed on April 20.
“This agreement is beneficial to India because it gives liberal interpretation to the identity requirements for exchange of information which India will be seeking from Switzerland and is in line with international standards,” the release said. The new arrangement will kick in retrospectively from April 1, 2011.
Indian tax authorities have already begun a crackdown on black money parked in places like Mauritius and Switzerland after they received information on tax evading bank accounts at HSBC Switzerland. Switzerland agreed on Monday to provide information about Indian citizens even if the government is able to give limited details. Both countries have signed a treaty for liberal interpretation of the identity requirements under their double taxation agreement, the ET reported.
Mittal is the founder of steel giant ArcelorMittal, headquartered in Luxembourg.
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