New Delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday said that the government is committed to bring back black money stashed abroad.
Reiterating the NDA government's resolve to bring back black money, he said, "Country will not have to wait for long for bringing back black money. We are giving all information received from abroad on black money to Supreme Court"
"Tax havens have started giving information on black money," he added.
Switzerland has been refusing to share details on names obtained by Indian authorities through other countries, namely France and Germany, saying they figured in lists stolen by certain ex-employees of the concerned banks and no details can be shared on the basis of illegally-obtained information.
A high-level delegation from Switzerland had held discussions on tax matters with the Indian government officials in New Delhi in February this year.
According to latest data, Swiss Federal Tax Administration received a total of 1,386 requests during 2013, down from 1,499 in the previous year 2012. The number of such incoming requests stood at only 370 in 2011.
In comparison, the Swiss Federal Tax Administration made six outgoing requests to other countries in 2013, up from two in 2012 and just one in 2011.
Latest data from the Swiss National Bank showed that total money of Indians in Swiss banks increased to Rs 14,100 crore at the end of 2013, from Rs 8,547 crore a year ago.
Addressing the Lok Sabha during the presentation of Finance bill, Jaitley said, "Retrospective tax sends a bad signal, doesn't help economy. Government will take a final view on retrospective tax laws".
Jaitley said that the government has not yet gone into General Anti-Avoidance tax issue. He added that the government intends spending time to study GAAR to take final view.
Jaitley also expressed his concerns on the burgeoning inflation that has rendered the common man helpless. Jaitley siad, " It will be too extreme to say that we are facing stagflation. We need to fight economic slowdown. Inflation cannot be tackled only by hiking interest rate."
