Black money issue solved: Swiss envoy

The Modi government in collaboration with Switzerland has established a mechanism where stashing black money is not easy for Indians any more.

New Delhi, Jan 10: Black money was one of the major issues on which Prime Minister Narendra Modi has talked a lot. Additionally, it has been his government that has taken tough steps to tackle the issue brilliantly. Now, the Swiss Ambassador to India Dr. Ralf Heckner admits that black money is not an issue any more in financial relations between Switzerland and India.

What he meant is that the Modi government in collaboration with Switzerland has established a mechanism where stashing black money is not easy for any Indian. India's fight against black money got a shot in the arm when Switzerland ratified the global convention on automatic exchange of information (AEOI) in 2017.

The AEOI is meant to help countries on financial transactions by their residents. Following the agreement Switzerland has been exchanging the data with the Indian government since 2017. The ANI report says that the Swiss ambassador admitted that his government had several batches of information exchange between Switzerland and India.

Black money no more an issue

The menace of black money from Indians stashed in Swiss banks has been there for decades. Most of the money earned through corrupt practices goes unnoticed and stashed in Swiss banks; however, once Switzerland started exchanging the data with the Indian government, inquiry against a particular taxpayer in India has become easier than ever.

Black money was also an issue where the interests of Switzerland were in conflict with India. This in fact, at times became a major hurdle for good relations between the two countries. However, now the Swiss ambassador has admitted that the black money issue isn't the issue anymore.

According to him there is not even one cloud over bilateral relations when it comes to financial relations, especially as the two countries have transparency regarding the data on the bank accounts from Indians in Swiss banks.

Modi govt's fight against black money in Swiss banks

For several decades, prime ministers and ministers kept talking about black money and how to bring back the amount. However, none were able to build a setup to tackle it. It is the Modi government that could do it as for the first time in October 2014, India and Switzerland signed a protocol to provide any requested banking information in a time bound manner.

Piyush Goyal in Parliament admitted that black money stashed in Swiss banks has declined a lot as it dropped by 80 per cent since the Modi government came to power. He had then informed that the non-bank deposits declined from $800 million in 2016 to $524 million in 2017 which used to be astonishingly high at $2.23 billion in 2014.