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BJP targets Swiss bank accounts
Tribune News Service

The Swiss Connection 80,000 Indians travel to Switzerland every year. 25,000 of them fly there frequently. Minimum balance required for a Swiss secret account is $ 10 million Indians hold more money in these accounts than citizens from rest of the world (Source : Indian media reports)

Advanispeak Indians had Rs 285 lakh crore stashed in Swiss Banks in 2007. He had written to the PM in April, 2008 but received no reply. Last year a German bank LGI offered to divulge secret accounts of Indians But Government of India is yet to approach Germany for this data If voted to power, NDA government will bring back Indian money from foreign shores

Chandigarh, March 29
Switzerland is known as much for its chocolate and cheese as its secret bank accounts. And the BJP president Lal Krishna Advani today set the cat among the pigeons by demanding that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh raise the issue forcefully at the G-20 summit in London.

Mr Advani also declared that the NDA, if voted to power, will bring back all Indian money held in secret bank accounts in tax havens abroad. He was, however, silent on the question of giving amnesty to the account holders.

Congress spokesman Kapil Sibal, in his initial reaction, wondered why the BJP chief never raised the issue in Parliament. “ He could have raised it in Parliament and the PM would have replied,” he said.

US federal agencies, however, have already offered to reduce penalties and no criminal prosecution provided US account holders voluntarily come forward to disclose amounts stashed in Swiss banks and pay taxes at reduced rates during the next six months. Other countries are expected to follow the US example.

Switzerland’s bank secrecy laws have come under increasing scrutiny and Switzerland’s largest private bank, UBS, was forced, this year, to divulge details to US agencies investigating tax fraud and tax evasion.

Reports last week quoted Swiss bankers to confirm that top executives have been asked not to travel abroad because of fears they will be detained as part of a global crackdown on bank secrecy.

Janata Dal (U) chief Sharad Yadav had also raised the issue of Indians’ accounts in Swiss banks, which, he alleged, amounted to 13 times the foreign debt and eight times the national budget. If the money is brought back to the country, he had said, India would be able to repay all the foreign debts and still be left with a huge, foreign exchange reserves.

The BJP president on Sunday said, in New Delhi , “ I don’t have much hope from the UPA government, but when the NDA comes to power, it would make all Indians to bring back the money stashed abroad.” The BJP, he said, had formed a four-member panel to suggest measures that the government can take. The panel comprises Professor Vaidyanathan of Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, Chennai based Chartered Accountant S Gurumurthy, lawyer Mahesh Jethmalani from Mumbai and former Intelligence Bureau chief, Ajit Doval.

The Swiss Banking Association was reported last year as stating that Indians had a whopping US $ 1,456 billion in secret accounts, which was more than the balance held by all other nationalities taken together. According to the report, Russians held US $470 billion, UK $ 390 billion and China $ 96 billion.