As India and Switzerland prepare to renegotiate the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement, the Swiss government has said it was confident that the pact would be finalised by next year and enable New Delhi to seek details about blackmoney stashed in banks there.
"Yes" was the emphatic answer of Switzerland's vice-president Doris Leuthard when asked whether renegotiating the treaty, which was signed in 1995, would enable India seek details of specific cases where tax evaders money was lying in Swiss banks.
She said she was confident of a positive outcome from the talks that are to begin in December.
"I think next year this new treaty can be accomplished," Leuthard, who was here for an informal WTO ministerial, said.
Leuthard said she had "good talks with India on tax matters."
On Swiss Bankers Association's (SBA) stance that India was not welcome there on a name-fishing expedition, she said no country in the world would allow such an activity.
"Fishing expedition is not allowed (anywhere in) the world. We have the OECD standards. We follow international rules...we do not protect crime," Leuthard, who is also minister of economic affairs, said.
Leuthard said India will have to apply through legal procedures based on the existing double taxation avoidance treaty if it has demands about specific cases of tax evasion.
"We already have a treaty with India. It only works if there is a concrete demand from the Indian authorities. The demand must follow principles of the treaty," she added.
Asked why Switzerland is not entertaining India's request when it has already given account details of a large number people to the US government, Leuthard said: "The US had a concrete demand. Legal procedure was already underway. These were all clients which cheated the authorities and we never cover (up) fraud."
Switzerland had last month reached an agreement with the US to give that country's Internal Revenue Service details of 4,450 clients who Washington suspected of evading taxes.
The issue of brining back black money stashed in Swiss banks had become a hot topic during the Lok Sabha elections earlier this year, and the Supreme Court is also hearing a public interest litigation accusing the government of inaction in bringing the money back to India.
