Indian Black Money in Swiss Banks

Switzerland has refused to divulge information about the black money stashed away in Swiss banks by Indians. This has dealt a big blow to the campaign to bring back black money to India and rein in corruption. The dream of country's development has also been shattered.

Alleviating Country's Poverty
There is so much Indian black money stashed away in Swiss banks that the country's poverty could be alleviated in a day and we would not need to borrow money from any other country or institution. Switzerland has said that the laws there do not allow it to divulge information about bank deposits, but it is not true.

Under an agreement with the United States, it has given information about 4,450 secret accounts of its citizens to the United States. Switzerland does not want to destroy its banking business by giving such information to India.

This business of Switzerland is prospering only on black money. It has provided information about secret accounts to the United States because its bank UBS AG in the United States has been caught in a big financial crisis. In lieu of rescuing that bank from crisis, it has provided information to the United States about the secret accounts. India would, therefore, have to find a way to bring back the country's money stashed away in Swiss banks and to ensure that black money is not smuggled out of India. The country can also think about schemes like general tax amnesty for it, but it has been criticized a lot.

Surplus Money and Foreign Debts
Fifty-six percent of the black money stashed away in Swiss bank belongs to Indians. This amount is approximately $1,500 billion. If this money could be brought back to the country, we could pay off all our foreign debt within 24 hours. Not only that, the surplus money remaining after that would be 12 times more than the foreign debts.

Every year, nearly 80,000 Indians travel to Switzerland. Nearly 25,000 of them travel to that country quite regularly. It is obvious that these people are not tourists.

Attempts were made earlier also to bring the black money back to the country, but they were not very successful because those who have evaded taxes and stashed it away in Swiss banks could bring it back, but those who have earned it through corruption are not going to bring it back.