Black money in Switzerland and other tax havens

[amitkriit]

I really suspect if GOI is serious about it. Like in "bofors case" its quite likely that they will keep buying time, and in the end, the rich will remain rich and respectable. Even if government makes the revelation completely duty free, those who had stashed black money will have to face many hard questions, which they may not be willing to answer.

 

[kuku]

In our nation there are people who steal from funds our government gives for disaster relief (floods, earthquakes, drought), farmer are able to make short work of subsadies to the level where (i personaly know of this) where they dont even need to grow crops, people steal from the public food distribution program which is reserved for the poorest of the poor.

On the eve of final election results when the congress was leading the words on analysts lips were, "now congress allies wont be able to demand money making ministries" (like surface trasportation and ports etc.

Getting a entry level post in police (like a constable in police) is viewed as a huge money making oppertunity and the parents of the person getting the post are ready to invest money in to securing the job, i know of JEs form my village working in public works/municipal services who have gifted their parents cars worth 8 lakh ruppes, my own first cousin works in direct tax and recieves bribe (that is collected and distributed in his office on a formula with rank, years in service as variables) worth a quater of his salary.

The day these horroble things stop i guess we wont need to get our money back from the swiss banks, we would have plenty, till this happens we all live in shame, the all of us.

 

[jaganpjames]

GOI is not interested in getting the details.. as that will be like opening a pandoras box ..
from what i understand is, there are even accounts of people whose names shouldnt be mentioned ...

 

[RPK]

`India will look into Swiss banks rejection to disclose details`

New Delhi: Union Finance Minster Pranab Mukherjee on Monday said the Indian government will look into the matter of Swiss banks rejection to hand over details of the Indian clients.

Speaking to newsmen before entering his North Block office Mukherjee said, “What can I comment? I will look into the matter and discuss the Swiss Banks rejection to disclose the details with authorities in banking sector.”


Earlier Swiss Bank authorities had rejected India’s request to disclose details of clients, saying Swiss law and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Model Tax Convention do not permit fishing expeditions.

The Swiss Bank authorities added that they would not co-operate for the indiscriminate trawling through bank accounts in the hope of finding something interesting.

“This means that India cannot simply throw its telephone book at Switzerland and ask if any of these people have a bank account here," a top Swiss Bankers Association official said.

According to sources the Swiss bank-client confidentiality has never been 100 per cent absolute and Swiss legislators have built in provisions for it to be lifted during criminal investigations and also in many civil cases and it has also evolved over time.

"The key for the exchange of information in tax matters is the Double Taxation Agreement between Switzerland and India,” said SBA’s Head of International Communications James Nason.

Double Taxation Agreements are being currently revised to incorporate the OECD standard on the exchange of information in tax matters according to the OECD's own Model Tax Convention.

 

[LETHALFORCE]

BERNAMA - India To Bring Back Black Money Stashed In Swiss Banks

India To Bring Back Black Money Stashed In Swiss Banks


NEW DELHI, Aug 26 (Bernama) -- The issue of bringing back black money stashed in Swiss banks had become a hot topic during the Lok Sabha (Lower House of Indian Parliament) elections earlier this year, and the Supreme Court of India is also hearing a public interest litigation accusing the government of inaction in bringing the money back to India.

According to a report by the Press Trust of India (PTI) the government earlier in May filed an affidavit in the case on the action taken by it on the issue.

The PIL was filed by former law minister and eminent jurist Ram Jethmalani and five others seeking a direction to the government to take action to bring back money lying in foreign banks.

The government counsel said in the court that the government was acting on the issue and noted that Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in his opening speech at the recent G-20 submit in London, had said that "there should be an absolute transparency and banking secrecy should be over."

Late in July, the Prime Minister as also Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, informed Parliament that the action has started for getting back black money belonging to Indians in Swiss banks.

After Swiss banks said that it would now allow "fishing" of accounts to India, political parties accused the government of inaction.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Rajnath Singh said the government should build up diplomatic pressure on Switzerland, while the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) wondered why India can't do what America did.

Janata Dal-United (JD-U) accused the government of "not actually wanting to do" anything about it.

Mukherjee said the government would use whatever information it gets from the Swiss authorities, but the "secrecy clause of Swiss banking, they have again reiterated that it will be maintained."

He said after India appealed to the Swiss authorities, it was suggested that New Delhi should enter into negotiations for the amendment of the avoidance of double taxation agreement.

"It was agreed that we should follow the model code of the OECD in respect of taxations and exchange of information part, that we have agreed... we have (also) agreed to initiate for the amendment of the relevant clause on taxes where the exchange of information can take place," he said.

 

[RPK]

We can share details of tax evaders: Swiss vice president- Hindustan Times

India and Switzerland will soon start negotiations to enlarge the scope of their bilateral double taxation treaty to allow sharing of details of bank accounts of people accused of tax evasion, visiting Swiss Vice-President and Minister of Economic Affairs Doris Leuthard said on Thursday.

"We are open to renegotiation of the treaty to include tax evasion, which is a crime here. The first round of talks will take place soon," Leuthard told reporters in New Delhi.

The Swiss minister said that the offer had been made by her country to other nations with which it has similar treaties.

"It means that if India has a case of tax evasion against a citizen who has an account in our banks, then India can apply through set procedures to know the details," she said.

As per the Swiss ambassador to India Philippe Welti, the bilateral discussions will take place before the end of this year.

Leuthard is here to take part in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministerial discussions.

Swiss banking secrecy had been in the news recently after India was refused permission to look through accounts of UBS AG. The US had, however, been allowed access to details of over 4,000 bank account holders.

It is expected that Switzerland would allow the sharing of bank account details of Indian citizens once the revised double taxation treaty is drawn up and signed.

 

[LETHALFORCE]

New tax pact will help India trace black money: Swiss govt- Finance-Economy-News-The Economic Times



New tax pact will help India trace black money: Swiss govt


NEW DELHI: As India and Switzerland prepare to renegotiate the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement, the Swiss government has said it was

confident that the pact would be finalised by next year and enable New Delhi to seek details about blackmoney stashed in banks there.

"Yes" was the emphatic answer of Switzerland's Vice- President Doris Leuthard when asked whether renegotiating the treaty, which was signed in 1995, would enable India seek details of specific cases where tax evaders money was lying in Swiss banks.

She said she was confident of a positive outcome from the talks that are to begin in December.

"I think next year this new treaty can be accomplished," Leuthard, who was here for an informal WTO ministerial, said.

Leuthard said she had "good talks with India on tax matters."

On Swiss Bankers Association's (SBA) stance that India was not welcome there on a name-fishing expedition, she said no country in the world would allow such an activity.

"Fishing expedition is not allowed (anywhere in) the world. We have the OECD standards. We follow international rules...we do not protect crime," Leuthard, who is also Minister of Economic Affairs, said.


There have been reports that Australia developed cold feet on the four-nation cooperation after China raised questions over it.

Identifying areas of cooperation, Gillard said security is one of the key elements which will cover the threat of terrorism also.

Besides free trade, cooperation on issues like climate change, particularly technology and research exchange and education are other sectors in which Australia wants to develop ties.

In the education sector, the two sides have agreed on setting up an annual dialogue.

Leuthard said India will have to apply through legal procedures based on the existing double taxation avoidance treaty if it has demands about specific cases of tax evasion.

We already have a treaty with India. It only works if there is a concrete demand from the Indian authorities. The demand must follow principles

of the treaty," she added.

Asked why Switzerland is not entertaining India's request when it has already given account details of a large number people to the US government, Leuthard said: "The US had a concrete demand. Legal procedure was already underway. These were all clients which cheated the authorities and we never cover (up) fraud."

Switzerland had last month reached an agreement with the US to give that country's Internal Revenue Service details of 4,450 clients who Washington suspected of evading taxes.

The issue of brining back black money stashed in Swiss banks had become a hot topic during the Lok Sabha elections earlier this year, and the Supreme Court is also hearing a public interest litigation accusing the government of inaction in bringing the money back to India.

 

[LaBong]

By the time anything worthwhile materializes, assuming something really does, the clever dicks will move their money to some other place, e.g. Cayman Islands, the hot spot for the yankees. I know I would.

Now, only if I could remember the secret combination...

 

[RPK]

fullstory

No 'black money' statistics exist: Swiss banks

New Delhi, Sep 13 (PTI) Amid claims from various quarters that Indians have stashed away thousands of crores in secret bank accounts in Switzerland, the Swiss banks have asserted that any statistics about black money "simply do not exist".

Various political parties and other groups have been claiming that the black money stashed away in Swiss banks by Indians exceed one trillion dollars.

These statistics, which put Indians at the top in terms of deposits in Swiss banks, have often been quoted to global institutions and sometimes even to the Swiss National Bank, the central bank of the country.

Seeking to demolish the "myth" over these figures being "circulated as gospel truth", a top official at the Swiss Bankers' Association told PTI from Basel that there were no truth at all in such statistics.

 

[ZOOM]

Asking Swiss Bank major UBS to disclose details of all those individuals for their Black money accounts is like trying to defy Gravity of earth and look to fly in the air. India first need to ensure that, all its administrative loopholes must be address in appropriate manner, so that it won't allow any individual to deposit black money through various other means. India need to undertake major reforms in Administrative sphere especially in Government departments as clear out all the glitches in its revenue collection through Tax, Duties and Custom mode.

 

[johnee]

Asking Swiss Bank major UBS to disclose details of all those individuals for their Black money accounts is like trying to defy Gravity of earth and look to fly in the air. India first need to ensure that, all its administrative loopholes must be address in appropriate manner, so that it won't allow any individual to deposit black money through various other means. India need to undertake major reforms in Administrative sphere especially in Government departments as clear out all the glitches in its revenue collection through Tax, Duties and Custom mode.

Asking Politicians and babus to undertake reforms that will make it hard for them to stash black money is like trying to defy gravity and looking to fly in the air. :blum3:

 

[Sridhar]

Switzerland exits `tax haven' list

29 September 2009

Switzerland has come out of the list of `tax haven' countries with the signing of 11 different taxation agreements with various countries and the incorporation of a protocol to its tax treaty with the United States that incorporates the internationally agreed tax information standard.
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has taken Switzerland off the list of non-cooperative tax havens, following these agreements, an OECD release said.
"Switzerland has signed 11 taxation agreements with different nations and most of them are significant economic partners like the US and the UK," the release noted.
The 11th agreement for the exchange of information in tax matters signed by Switzerland and the US meets the OECD standard, the release said.

OECD said Switzerland is also expected to shortly sign another agreement. This will mark the 12th agreement conforming to the OECD standard and will mean that Switzerland joins the category of jurisdictions that have substantially implemented the internationally agreed tax standard, it said.
"Because of the time difference, this will be reflected in the regular progress report to be issued Friday morning in Paris," the release added.
"This is a very meaningful development and it shows that OECD countries are prepared to step up to the mark. Our congratulations to the Swiss authorities. Signing agreements is only one step in a process. What we will now be looking for effective implementation by all countries," OECD secretary-general Angel Gurría stated.
Since the progress report was first published on 2 April, OECD said, unprecedented progress has been made towards transparency and exchange of information for tax purposes. All 88 jurisdictions surveyed by the Global Forum have now committed to the OECD standards. Moreover, jurisdictions that had not substantially implemented the standard on 2 April have signed more than 150 agreements since then while many more are under negotiation.
"As a result, 11 jurisdictions - Aruba, Austria, Belgium, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Bahrain, Cayman Islands, Luxembourg, Monaco, Netherlands Antilles and San Marino - have moved to the category of jurisdictions having substantially implemented the standard since 2 April. Switzerland will now join that category."
"The Global Forum will be able to assess more carefully the extent to which agreements are signed with partners that have a significant interest in exchanging information, the extent to which agreements are implemented in practice and a jurisdiction's willingness to continue to enter into agreements even after it has reached the threshold," the OECD secretary-general added.

domain-b.com : Switzerland exits `tax haven' list

 

[LETHALFORCE]

http://www.hindustantimes.com/News/...nce-India-prepares-cases/Article1-446862.aspx

Black money: Swiss banks want evidence, India prepares cases

Negotiating with Switzerland for treaty for unearthing black money stashed there, India will take up specific cases with Swiss banks, which on Tuesday said there must be concrete suspicion or evidence of wrongdoing for them to help.

Highly placed sources said that government is in the process of compiling the details and is expected to approach the Swiss authorities with specific cases.

Notwithstanding a revision in the Double Taxation Agreement between India and Switzerland, the Swiss Banks have made it clear that even under the new treaty fishing expeditions would not be allowed.

"I believe that India has lodged a request to revise its Double Taxation Agreement with Switzerland... (but) even under the new agreement and according to Organisation of Economic cooperation and Development Model Tax convention... there must be concrete suspicions and evidence of wrongdoing (for sharing the accounts details)," a top official of Swiss Bankers Association said from Basel.

Government sources said in New Delhi that India is already negotiating with Swiss government for revising double taxation avoidance treaty. The present treaty between the two nations was signed in 1995.

SBA's Head of International Communications James Nason said "the privacy of clients innocent of any wrongdoing should remain protected and any unjustified snooping be firmly prohibited."

Commenting on the uproar over Swiss banks not disclosing account details to India, the official questioned whether "banks in every other country of the world pin up the names of their clients on their front door for all to see."

"Citizens have a right to a high degree of privacy concerning their financial affairs," Nason said, adding that the Swiss bank-client confidentiality was never 100 per cent absolute, but sharing of details needed evidence of wrongdoings.

SBA also made it clear that the sharing of details with the US was limited to the accounts that "have clearly been used to commit tax fraud and the like."

"This is not a fishing expedition. This is a search based on very specific search criteria and the whole procedure conforms to existing Swiss law," SBA official added.

Switzerland was previously treating tax fraud and tax evasion differently when considering foreign requests for legal assistance in tax matters, but now it has agreed to give assistance for "all tax offences, including tax evasion."

"The new policy will be implemented through Double Taxation Agreements" such treaties with over 70 countries, including India, were in the process of revised accordingly, the official noted.

 

[Daredevil]

Victory for India; Swiss Banks to reveal Indian black money

Published on Wed 14th Oct 2009 17:10:59
New Delhi, October 14 :

Giving in to long standing Indian demands, Swiss government has agreed to reveal the black money of Indians deposited in the Swiss Banks.

Swiss Ambassador to India Mr Philippe Welti said, “We will amend double taxation treaty to include evasion”.

The move will allow Indian government to access the account of tax evaders and would open black money floodgates.

The black money in Swiss Banks was a major issue in the last Lok Sabha polls.

"The BJP is claiming that about $500 billion to $1,400 billion belonging to Indians has been deposited in Swiss banks. Media reports, however, quoting one annual report of Swiss banking association have put the figure at $1500 to $1900 billion. Now, which one is correct? We have checked the official website of Swiss banking association and there is no mention of that annual report there," the Govt said.

Earlier, the Government of India had asked the Indian ambassador in Switzerland to take up the matter with the Swiss authorities and find out the details of Indian accounts

The government was trying to become the member of Financial Action Task Force (FATF) - an international agency comprising many countries that has imposed stringent laws for financial regulations and also share information among themselves about assets of individuals.

 

[LETHALFORCE]

news.outlookindia.com | India, Swiss to Discuss Tax Treaty in November

India, Swiss to Discuss Tax Treaty in November

Amid allegations of black money being stashed in Swiss banks, India and Switzerland have advanced their talks on amending the taxation treaty by a month to the second week of November.

The discussions on renegotiating the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA), which comes in the wake of India seeking details of the black money stashed in Swiss banks, was earlier scheduled to be held in December.

"Exact date, I don't remember. I was told, it (the talks on taxation treaty) has been advanced... It may be November 10 or 11, earlier it was December 10,11...," Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said, responding to a question on renegotiating the DTAA with the Swiss authorities.

Speaking at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit here, Mukherjee asserted that the government is "genuinely serious" about amending the treaty.

Earlier, Mukherjee had said India and Switzerland would meet in December to negotiate the DTAA amendments.

Regarding the amount of unaccounted money lying in Swiss banks, the Finance Minister said the government had made only one estimate, way back in 1985.

"As far as the estimation (about black money) is concerned, the government has not made any estimates.

"Government made one estimation sometime in 1985 and thereafter, they did not make any effort but there has been some well-documented studies by some experts, some professors and those figures are available," Mukherjee said.

 

[LETHALFORCE]

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/repor...aty-with-switzerland-over-black-money_1351085

Government renegotiating treaty with Switzerland over black money

New Delhi: Government is renegotiating the tax treaty with Switzerland to unearth unaccounted money parked outside India.


Addressing Parliament on the first day of Budget session, president Pratibah Patil said steps have already been initiated for negotiations to enter into agreements for the exchange of information with major jurisdictions.

"My government has undertaken a number of steps to unearth unaccounted money parked outside India. These include amendment of the Income-tax Act, 1961 to enable the Central government to enter into tax agreements with non-sovereign jurisdictions," she said.

Patil said "Renegotiation of the Tax Treaty with Switzerland is in process. India is an active part of the global efforts to facilitate exchange of tax information, and to take action against tax evasion."

Various political parties and groups have been claiming that the black money stashed away in Swiss banks by Indians exceed one trillion dollars, a claim refuted by Swiss bankers who say no such statistics exist.

Renegotiation of the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement treaty, which was signed in 1995, would enable India seek details of specific cases where tax evaders money was lying in Swiss banks.

 

[LETHALFORCE]

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/India_to_create_money-laundering_database_999.html

India to create money-laundering database

New Delhi (UPI) Mar 9, 2009
The Indian government is setting up a centralized database to coordinate intelligence from central security agencies in its battle against money laundering and terrorist funding
.

The database would act as a "ready reckoner" for different security, as well as law and order enforcement, groups, a report by the Press Trust of India said.

Sources in the home ministry said the goal is to greatly improve detection of illegal money movement within and outside the country and among groups or institutions using banks and other intermediaries.

The database would be created by the Financial Intelligence Unit-India, the national agency responsible for processing and analyzing information relating to suspect financial transactions.

The government announcement comes after an alarming increase in the numbers of suspicious and counterfeit money transactions in 2009. A finance ministry report said, the Financial Intelligence Unit-India detected 4,400 suspicious transactions last year, more than double the figure for 2008.

Banks also reported a major surge in counterfeit currency transactions. They reported just less than 8,600 incidences of receiving counterfeit money in 2008 but noted more than 35,700 last year.

The government also received 69 requests for information from foreign financial intelligence units while Indian institutions sent 17 similar requests to other countries, it said.

The government often works with foreign police organizations to investigate money laundering which is usually connected to cross-boarder drug dealing, as was the case in early December.

Indian police in New Delhi acting with British police arrested Naresh Kumar Jain, suspected of being one of the world's leading underworld bankers and also wanted in the United States.

The Serious and Organized Crime Agency in the United Kingdom had had Jain, 50, under investigation since 2006. Agency officers said they believe him responsible for laundering millions of dollars, including drug money in Britain, of profits from organized crime in the past several years,a report in The Guardian newspaper said at the time.

Jain, also known as Naresh Patel, was arrested in April 2007 by Dubai police but jumped bail in 2008. He allegedly ran his operations out of Dubai and was capable of shifting up to $2.2 billion of money a year to any country of a client's choosing.

Much of Jain's money was suspected of being moved by the informal hawala, an honor-based money transfer system primarily in the Middle East, East Africa and South Asia. His property in Dubai was searched and police said they found banking and wire-transfer evidence of layering, a money-laundering technique to disguise the origin of sham commodities trading
that had links to a finance company in Manhattan, The Guardian report said.

The U.S. government seized $4.3 million of Jain's money and another $2.3 million from his business dealings worldwide has been frozen.

Jain remains in jail in New Delhi but insists that India's Narcotics Control Bureau has framed him, according to a report by the Press Trust of India. His suspected accomplice in hawala, Pakistani national but Dubai-based Ahmed Parvez, is being prosecuted in Italy, the bureau said

 

[Agantrope]

I dont understand a thing. If people are beating the drums and telling "we are going to bring the Black money blah blah blah..." wont the account holder get ushered and he may move his account to another tax haven. this is a simple common sense. I feel we can get only the fraction of amount from the swiss. Anyhow something is better than nothing

 

[LETHALFORCE]

The government can keep it confidential and not punish people to bring back the black money and at the same time charge 3-5% fee for money brought back, it would benefit the party hiding the money and the government and the country/economy by bringing in foreign exchange since most of the money is probably not in rupees.

 

[LETHALFORCE]

http://blackbehindwhite.blogspot.com/2010/04/indian-black-money-in-swiss-bank-myth.html

Indian Black Money in Swiss Bank: Myth and Reality

Following is the exact representation of a mail that was forwarded to me by one of my friends.

On March 16, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) issued its manifesto, which said that (if it came to power) it would "launch a drive to unearth black money, especially those (sic) stashed in Swiss banks and other tax havens". The issue was taken up by Sharad Yadav of Janata Dal (United), who said on March 27 that there were 1.47 trillion dollars hidden by Indians in Swiss banks.

If the money was brought back, it could repay the entire foreign debt of India and leave enough to abolish all taxes for many years. The reason the UPA government had not put pressure on Switzerland to send the money back was that many of its politicians had Swiss accounts.

Then L.K. Advani took up the issue in his press conference on March 29. He said that according to Wikipedia, illicit money lodged in Swiss banks totaled $2.6 trillion (Rs 130 lakh crore in today's exchange rate) in 2001 and $5.7 trillion (Rs 285 lakh crore) in 2007, and that illicit money deposited by rich Indians in Swiss banks and tax havens elsewhere was between $0.5-1.4 trillion (Rs 25-70 lakh crore). Illicit money comprised political bribes, crime money and venal business.

Even the lower amount was enough to relieve the debt of all farmers and landless workers, build world-class roads all over the country, take electricity to every rural home, provide drinking water in all villages and towns, construct good houses for 10 crore families, provide Rs 4 crore to every village; and to build a school, a health centre, a veterinary clinic, a playground with gymnasium, and more in every village. Advani quoted M.K. Narayanan, National Security Advisor, as saying that money belonging to terrorists might have been invested in the Indian stock market through participatory notes.

Introduced when India needed foreign exchange badly, participatory notes continued to be permitted. Advani referred to Hasan Ali Khan without naming him as a hawala operator whom the income tax department had found having unaccounted wealth worth Rs 35,000 crore including in accounts abroad.

Secret bank accounts can destroy our financial system and support terror networks, which increased their attacks on India under the UPA. If elected, a BJP-led NDA government will join global efforts to put an end to banking secrecy and try its best to get hold of money held abroad. Meanwhile, the BJP will make intense propaganda on the issue.

After hearing Advani's sensational speech on television, I looked for his figures in Wikipedia. I found the figures of $2.6 and $5.7 trillion for Swiss banks in the article on banking in Switzerland. But they are total deposits; there is nothing illicit about them. Then I looked for figures of Indian deposits in Swiss banks. They are not in Wikipedia. I found many blogs, mostly by Indians, that mentioned Advani's and other figures. One attributed them to K.V.M. Pai and through him to Swiss banking association. I looked up Pai's article in the August 2006, issue of Outlook Business as well as the annual reports of the Swiss Banking Association for 2006-07 and 2007-08; none of them contains the figures. Prime facie, it is unlikely that the SBA would on its own disclose such figures. They are someone's guesses, driven by powerful wishful thinking. Advani himself gives the range of $0.5-1.4 trillion; he is extremely uncertain.

But he is certain that it is illicit: that it is illegal for Indians to deposit money in foreign banks. He is mistaken. It is perfectly legal for
non-resident Indians to have deposits abroad. According to a list produced by the Ministry of Indian Overseas Affairs in 2000, there were about 20 million non-resident Indians (it is too tedious to make a more accurate total of the figures for over 100 countries). If their per capita income were $25,000, they would be earning $500 billion a year. Their bank deposits are anybody's guess. Very few of the 20 million NRIs have Indian passports. If they are nationals of other countries, there is no way Advani can touch their assets, even if they kept their deposits in Swiss banks.

As for the few non-resident Indian passport-holders, the Income Tax Department claims taxes on them only if they are in India for more than 183 days in a financial year. Advani has this mental picture of Indians who live in India but go occasionally to Zurich and draw money from the accounts they keep there. There is simply nothing to support the supposition that such people have $1.4 trillion in Swiss banks.

Thousands of Indians no doubt visit Switzerland every year, some of them more than occasionally; but there is nothing to connect precisely those travelers with that mythical $1.4 trillion. And that the money came from political bribes and crime is pure fantasy. The government discovered one case where money of an undisclosed criminal was invested in P-notes; but they are not a popular avenue for criminals. It is much simpler for them to park money in real estate.

Hasan Ali Khan, whom Advani refers to as a typical tax evader and holder of Swiss bank accounts, was a bon voyeur who bought race horses and flaunted his money in Pune; the story that he was a hawala operator worth Rs 35,000 crore was manufactured by the enforcement directorate, which is desperately looking for work. There is no independent confirmation of the story – for instance, no documents filed in court.

Advani's appetite has been fired by the success of the United States of America in getting details of assets of US citizens from Swiss banks. Till now, the US Justice Department has succeeded against only one bank: on February 19, UBS agreed to pay the US $780 million and give details of assets amounting to $20 billion and names of 250 clients.

The US is asking for details of 52,000 clients; Swiss banks are resisting, and have the support of the Swiss government. Compare that $20 billion with the $1,400 billion Advani hopes to bring back. The US Internal Revenue Service is not seeking to expropriate Americans' deposits in Switzerland. It is asking for 20 per cent of the highest balance held abroad, plus six years' back taxes plus interest.

The US makes those demands because it taxes the world income of Americans wherever they are (they get rebates for other countries' income taxes they pay); India makes such demands only from residents of India. And there are simply not so many Indian idiots who reside in India and leave their money in Switzerland. Those who wanted to keep their assets abroad long ago went to live abroad and are beyond the Indian tax net.

And the US can succeed in pressuring Swiss banks because business in the US is indispensable for them.
Their business in India is not even 5 per cent of their total business; rather than give up client confidentiality, they would close down their branches in India - and ask their clients to come to Dubai or Bangkok instead. So even if Advani becomes an iron Prime Minister, he will not bring a single illicit penny home. He was only diverting attention from the Varun affair.