As I am very new in this forum I could not check whether it was discussed in this forum or not....hope you all will participate and provide informations what you have.
There are hundreds of reports about the possible Indian deposit in major banks in Switzerland. Though It is not possible for me to judge authenticity of these reports. However, it was in election agenda of BJP. Even CPM leaders wrote the PM about it. Recently, in an interview Mr Pranab Mukherjee said they are in dialogue with swiss officials.
Black money: In dialogue with Swiss officials, says Pranab
Express news service
Posted: 2009-07-15 12:55:46+05:30 IST
Updated: Jul 15, 2009 at 1255 hrs IST
New Delhi: Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday said that New Delhi has initiated a dialogue with Swiss authorities to obtain information on Indian black money stashed away in banks there an issue that had raised much political heat during the elections with BJP leader L K Advani making it a major poll plank.
Mukherjee, at the same time, said the Government has no plans to bring in a new amnesty scheme for tax evaders, pointing out that in the past there have been complaints that the government was penalising the honest tax payer as in every such scheme the normal rate of tax was reduced. Efforts to amend the Indo-Mauritius tax treaty to curb its abuse, however, are being pursued, he said.
Mukherjee said Swiss banks had until now taken a position that they would not divulge information but as a consequence of global meltdown, there is pressure by OECD countries to bring in more transparency and revision of the Avoidance of Double Taxation Agreements. I am told that the Swiss authorities have ultimately agreed to enter into negotiations, he told the Rajya Sabha while claiming that the government is working to revise Double Tax Avoidance Agreements, particularly the secrecy clause, which it has with other countries. It is an international commitment. Unilaterally, we cannot simply ignore it. If we ignore it, then further sources of information will be dried out. We are, therefore, negotiating with them, he said.
As far as the new amnesty scheme is concerned, he said, We are not very enamoured to have another type of disclosure scheme, adding that the government was in talks with Mauritius to amend the tax treaty to check companies evading paying taxes in both countries. Delhi has also offered to compensate the Mauritius for any loss in revenues because of a change in the treaty.
Is India poor, who says? Ask Swiss banks
Is India poor, who says? Ask Swiss banks
With personal account deposit bank of $1500 billion in foreign reserve which have been
misappropriated, an amount 13 times larger than the countrys foreign debt, one needs to rethink if India is a poor country?.
DISHONEST INDUSTRIALISTS, scandalous politicians and corrupt IAS, IRS,IPS officers have deposited in foreign banks in their illegal personal accounts a sum of about $ 1500 billion, which have been misappropriated by them.
This amount is about 13 times larger than the countrys foreign debt. With this amount 45 crore poor people can get Rs 1,00,000 each. This huge amount has been appropriated from the people of India by exploiting and betraying them.
Once this huge amount of black money and property comes back to India , the entire foreign debt can be repaid in 24 hours. After paying the entire foreign debt, we will have surplus amount, almost 12 times larger than the foreign debt. If this surplus amount is invested
in earning interest, the amount of interest will be more than the annual budget of the Central government. So even if all the taxes are abolished, then also the Central government will be able to maintain the country very comfortably.
Some 80,000 people travel to Switzerland every year, of whom 25,000 travel very frequently.
Obviously, these people wont be tourists. They must be traveling there for some other reason, believes an official involved in tracking illegal money. And, clearly, he isnt referring to the commerce ministry bureaucrats whove been flitting in and out of Geneva ever since the World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations went into a tailspin!
Just read the following details and note how these dishonest industrialists, scandalous politicians, corrupt officers, cricketers, film actors, illegal sex trade and protected wildlife operators, to name just a few, sucked this countrys wealth and prosperity. This may be the picture of deposits in Swiss banks only. What about other international banks?
Black money in Swiss banks Swiss Banking Association report, 2006 details bank deposits in the territory of Switzerland by nationals of following countries:
Top five
India- $1,456 billion
Russia $ 470 billion
UK -$390 billion
Ukraine - $100 billion
China $ 96 billion
Now do the maths - India with $1456 billion or $1.4 trillion has more money in Swiss banks than rest of the world combined. Public loot since 1947:
Can we bring back our money? It is one of the biggest loots witnessed by mankind the loot of the Aam Aadmi (common man) since 1947, by his brethren occupying public office. It has been orchestrated by politicians, bureaucrats and some businessmen.
The list is almost all-encompassing. No wonder, everyone in India loots with impunity and without any fear.
What is even more depressing in that this ill-gotten wealth of ours has been stashed away abroad into secret bank accounts located in some of the worlds best known tax havens. And to that extent the Indian economy has been stripped of its wealth.
Ordinary Indians may not be exactly aware of how such secret accounts operate and what are the rules and regulations that go on to govern such tax havens. However, one may well be aware of Swiss bank accounts, the shorthand for murky dealings, secrecy and of course
pilferage from developing countries into rich developed ones.
In fact, some finance experts and economists believe tax havens to be a conspiracy of the western world against the poor countries. By allowing the proliferation of tax havens in the twentieth century, the western world explicitly encourages the movement of scarce capital
from the developing countries to the rich.
In March 2005, the Tax Justice Network (TJN) published a research finding demonstrating that $11.5 trillion of personal wealth was held offshore by rich individuals across the globe.
The findings estimated that a large proportion of this wealth was managed from some 70 tax havens. Further, augmenting these studies of TJN, Raymond Baker in his widely
celebrated book titled Capitalism s Achilles Heel: Dirty Money and How to Renew the Free Market System estimates that at least $5 trillion have been shifted out of poorer countries to the West since the mid-1970.
It is further estimated by experts that one per cent of the worlds population holds more than 57 per cent of total global wealth, routing it invariably through these tax havens. How much of this is from India is anybodys guess.
What is to be noted here is that most of the wealth of Indians parked in these tax havens is illegitimate money acquired through corrupt means.
Naturally, the secrecy associated with the bank accounts in such places is central to the issue, not their low tax rates as the term tax havens suggests. Remember Bofors and how India could not trace the ultimate beneficiary of those transactions because of the secrecy
associated with these bank accounts? IS THERE ANY ONE WHO WOULD SAVE INDIA ?God... No No No, even he cant..........!!
Ramesh C. Manghirmalani
Seek details about black money from Swiss Banks: CPM tells Govt
New Delhi With one of the Swiss banks agreeing to provide information to the US about its account-holders, the CPI(M) on Monday demanded that the UPA government should seek details of Indians who have illegally stashed funds in Switzerland and other tax havens.
The CPI(M) Polit Bureau said it is imperative that the UPA government demand details of Indian account-holders from Swiss banks and from banks in other tax havens.
In the case of India, it is not only a case of tax evasion but also of funds being illegally stashed abroad, or used for money laundering, the CPI(M) said in a statement.
The CPI(M) reminded the government that UBS, the largest Swiss Bank, has agreed to provide information to the US of account-holders who are suspected to have evaded taxes in America while British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has also called for such an action.
If the (UPA) government is serious about stopping black money and raising resources to meet growing economic crisis, it must take steps to bring back the unaccounted, or, ill-gotten wealth of Indians abroad, the party said.
The Swiss banks with secret accounts are known to hold substantial sum of money deposited by Indians, it said adding these funds amounting to billions of dollars were either illegally taken out of the country or were deposited in Switzerland and other tax havens instead of being repatriated to India.
There are hundreds of reports about the possible Indian deposit in major banks in Switzerland. Though It is not possible for me to judge authenticity of these reports. However, it was in election agenda of BJP. Even CPM leaders wrote the PM about it. Recently, in an interview Mr Pranab Mukherjee said they are in dialogue with swiss officials.
Black money: In dialogue with Swiss officials, says Pranab
Express news service
Posted: 2009-07-15 12:55:46+05:30 IST
Updated: Jul 15, 2009 at 1255 hrs IST
New Delhi: Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday said that New Delhi has initiated a dialogue with Swiss authorities to obtain information on Indian black money stashed away in banks there an issue that had raised much political heat during the elections with BJP leader L K Advani making it a major poll plank.
Mukherjee, at the same time, said the Government has no plans to bring in a new amnesty scheme for tax evaders, pointing out that in the past there have been complaints that the government was penalising the honest tax payer as in every such scheme the normal rate of tax was reduced. Efforts to amend the Indo-Mauritius tax treaty to curb its abuse, however, are being pursued, he said.
Mukherjee said Swiss banks had until now taken a position that they would not divulge information but as a consequence of global meltdown, there is pressure by OECD countries to bring in more transparency and revision of the Avoidance of Double Taxation Agreements. I am told that the Swiss authorities have ultimately agreed to enter into negotiations, he told the Rajya Sabha while claiming that the government is working to revise Double Tax Avoidance Agreements, particularly the secrecy clause, which it has with other countries. It is an international commitment. Unilaterally, we cannot simply ignore it. If we ignore it, then further sources of information will be dried out. We are, therefore, negotiating with them, he said.
As far as the new amnesty scheme is concerned, he said, We are not very enamoured to have another type of disclosure scheme, adding that the government was in talks with Mauritius to amend the tax treaty to check companies evading paying taxes in both countries. Delhi has also offered to compensate the Mauritius for any loss in revenues because of a change in the treaty.
Is India poor, who says? Ask Swiss banks
Is India poor, who says? Ask Swiss banks
With personal account deposit bank of $1500 billion in foreign reserve which have been
misappropriated, an amount 13 times larger than the countrys foreign debt, one needs to rethink if India is a poor country?.
DISHONEST INDUSTRIALISTS, scandalous politicians and corrupt IAS, IRS,IPS officers have deposited in foreign banks in their illegal personal accounts a sum of about $ 1500 billion, which have been misappropriated by them.
This amount is about 13 times larger than the countrys foreign debt. With this amount 45 crore poor people can get Rs 1,00,000 each. This huge amount has been appropriated from the people of India by exploiting and betraying them.
Once this huge amount of black money and property comes back to India , the entire foreign debt can be repaid in 24 hours. After paying the entire foreign debt, we will have surplus amount, almost 12 times larger than the foreign debt. If this surplus amount is invested
in earning interest, the amount of interest will be more than the annual budget of the Central government. So even if all the taxes are abolished, then also the Central government will be able to maintain the country very comfortably.
Some 80,000 people travel to Switzerland every year, of whom 25,000 travel very frequently.
Obviously, these people wont be tourists. They must be traveling there for some other reason, believes an official involved in tracking illegal money. And, clearly, he isnt referring to the commerce ministry bureaucrats whove been flitting in and out of Geneva ever since the World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations went into a tailspin!
Just read the following details and note how these dishonest industrialists, scandalous politicians, corrupt officers, cricketers, film actors, illegal sex trade and protected wildlife operators, to name just a few, sucked this countrys wealth and prosperity. This may be the picture of deposits in Swiss banks only. What about other international banks?
Black money in Swiss banks Swiss Banking Association report, 2006 details bank deposits in the territory of Switzerland by nationals of following countries:
Top five
India- $1,456 billion
Russia $ 470 billion
UK -$390 billion
Ukraine - $100 billion
China $ 96 billion
Now do the maths - India with $1456 billion or $1.4 trillion has more money in Swiss banks than rest of the world combined. Public loot since 1947:
Can we bring back our money? It is one of the biggest loots witnessed by mankind the loot of the Aam Aadmi (common man) since 1947, by his brethren occupying public office. It has been orchestrated by politicians, bureaucrats and some businessmen.
The list is almost all-encompassing. No wonder, everyone in India loots with impunity and without any fear.
What is even more depressing in that this ill-gotten wealth of ours has been stashed away abroad into secret bank accounts located in some of the worlds best known tax havens. And to that extent the Indian economy has been stripped of its wealth.
Ordinary Indians may not be exactly aware of how such secret accounts operate and what are the rules and regulations that go on to govern such tax havens. However, one may well be aware of Swiss bank accounts, the shorthand for murky dealings, secrecy and of course
pilferage from developing countries into rich developed ones.
In fact, some finance experts and economists believe tax havens to be a conspiracy of the western world against the poor countries. By allowing the proliferation of tax havens in the twentieth century, the western world explicitly encourages the movement of scarce capital
from the developing countries to the rich.
In March 2005, the Tax Justice Network (TJN) published a research finding demonstrating that $11.5 trillion of personal wealth was held offshore by rich individuals across the globe.
The findings estimated that a large proportion of this wealth was managed from some 70 tax havens. Further, augmenting these studies of TJN, Raymond Baker in his widely
celebrated book titled Capitalism s Achilles Heel: Dirty Money and How to Renew the Free Market System estimates that at least $5 trillion have been shifted out of poorer countries to the West since the mid-1970.
It is further estimated by experts that one per cent of the worlds population holds more than 57 per cent of total global wealth, routing it invariably through these tax havens. How much of this is from India is anybodys guess.
What is to be noted here is that most of the wealth of Indians parked in these tax havens is illegitimate money acquired through corrupt means.
Naturally, the secrecy associated with the bank accounts in such places is central to the issue, not their low tax rates as the term tax havens suggests. Remember Bofors and how India could not trace the ultimate beneficiary of those transactions because of the secrecy
associated with these bank accounts? IS THERE ANY ONE WHO WOULD SAVE INDIA ?God... No No No, even he cant..........!!
Ramesh C. Manghirmalani
Seek details about black money from Swiss Banks: CPM tells Govt
New Delhi With one of the Swiss banks agreeing to provide information to the US about its account-holders, the CPI(M) on Monday demanded that the UPA government should seek details of Indians who have illegally stashed funds in Switzerland and other tax havens.
The CPI(M) Polit Bureau said it is imperative that the UPA government demand details of Indian account-holders from Swiss banks and from banks in other tax havens.
In the case of India, it is not only a case of tax evasion but also of funds being illegally stashed abroad, or used for money laundering, the CPI(M) said in a statement.
The CPI(M) reminded the government that UBS, the largest Swiss Bank, has agreed to provide information to the US of account-holders who are suspected to have evaded taxes in America while British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has also called for such an action.
If the (UPA) government is serious about stopping black money and raising resources to meet growing economic crisis, it must take steps to bring back the unaccounted, or, ill-gotten wealth of Indians abroad, the party said.
The Swiss banks with secret accounts are known to hold substantial sum of money deposited by Indians, it said adding these funds amounting to billions of dollars were either illegally taken out of the country or were deposited in Switzerland and other tax havens instead of being repatriated to India.