Switzerland has agreed to provide banking and tax-related information to India even if the address of the concerned person is not provided by the country. The move is aimed at fostering greater cooperation between the two countries with the aim to locate individuals and entities who have stashed illegal money in the European tax haven.
?Switzerland, now, has agreed to provide liberal interpretation on the identity requirements that it is sufficient if the requesting state identifies the person by other means than by indicating the name and address of the person concerned,? an official statement said. It, however, did not clarify what are the other means to identify the person who have stashed money there.
Under a mutual agreement reached on April 20 between the two countries, Switzerland has given consent to give liberal interpretation to the provisions concerning identities of Indian citizens. The agreement was signed under revised double taxation avoidance agreement (DTAA) between the two countries. Under the agreement, Switzerland will enable India to get information even if it has only limited details regarding the person having bank accounts in Switzerland.
Last year, India and Switzerland had renegotiated the DTAA for sharing banking and tax-related information. The framework has permitted to share information by Switzerland in specific cases for the period starting April 1 last year.
