Even as fugitive Indian tycoon Vijay Mallya’s extradition back to India nears, government has another good news in store. Switzerland is set to transfer details of the Indian account holders in HSBC (Suisse), The Indian Express reported. The account holders have received a communication from the Swiss Federal Tax Administration (FTA) to provide their written consent and a Swiss address to receive notices, the report added.
Nearly six weeks back, FTA sent communication to the individual Indian account holders that the Indian request for banking details meets the requirements specified in the DTA (double taxation agreement) signed by the two countries.
“In the request dated 31 October 2018, the Indian competent authority requested information related to you…we therefore requested HSBC Private Bank (Suisse)…to provide us with the information requested by the competent authority from the time period starting from April 1, 2011…if you would like to take part in the Swiss procedure for administrative assistance you are requested to designate a representative to receive service in Switzerland or provide us with your current address in Switzerland,” the communication said.
The French authorities had in 2011 submitted a list of 628 Indians to India who held accounts in HSBC Private Bank (Suisse). In 2015, Swiss Leaks, an investigation done by The Indian Express with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and French newspaper Le Monde had revealed.
Meanwhile, in less than two months after a UK court on Sunday ordered fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya’s extradition to India, British Home Secretary Sajid Javid signed the order for completing the process. The 62-year-old, owner of the defunct Kingfisher Airlines, is wanted in India for wilful default of over Rs 9,000 crore loans from Indian banks.