New Delhi, Nov 9: Switzerland has started sharing banking and tax-related information with India, more than a year after the two countries signed a revised bilateral treaty that is likely to help tackle the problem of black money.
The information, which Switzerland denied earlier because of secrecy norms, is also expected to pave the way for bringing back black money stashed abroad.
"We are getting information from Switzerland...they will also provide information regarding tax-evasion cases," a senior Finance Ministry official said.
Although India and Switzerland had signed a protocol in August 2010 to revise the Double Tax Avoidance Agreement (DTAA), it took more than a year to operationalise the treaty.
The European nation, the official said, has communicated to India that all legal requirements and procedures for giving effect to the protocol had been completed.
Geneva has also communicated to New Delhi, "The protocol comes into affect from October 7, 2011 and now it would be possible for India to obtain banking information in special cases from Switzerland commencing from April 1, 2011".
On a query whether Swiss authorities would provide more information on 700 bank accounts allegedly held by Indians in HSBC Bank, Geneva, Swiss Ambassador to India Philippe had said yesterday that his Government would respond to all legitimate requests by India.
As per the treaty, both the governments are entitled to release data in cases which has been defined in the treaty, the Ambassador had said.
Currently, the India is looking into looking into details of Swiss bank accounts provided by French authorities.
As per a Swiss National Bank data, Indians held Rs 9,295 crore in 2010 in banks of Switzerland.
