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Indian Money In Swiss Banks Rises By 50%, Cross Rs 7000 Crores In 2017
29 Jun 2018 12:27 PM GMT
A few months ago, a framework was put in place for the automatic exchange of information between Switzerland and India. Cooperation from foreign nations is a major part of India’s fight against black money as most people with ill-gotten high net worth prefer to deposit it far away from the reach of Indian laws. The fight against black money is one of the significant promises made by the NDA government. As per the data released by Swiss National Bank (SNB), 2017 witnessed a rise in the overall amount of Indian origin money with the Swiss banks.
Money parked by Indians in Swiss banks rose over 50% to ₹7,000 crore (Swiss Francs (CHF) 1.01 billion) in 2017, as reported by Indian Express This rise is significant because, for the past few years, it was actually decreasing.
Money deposited in Swiss Banks
Money deposited by Indians in Swiss banks had plummeted by 45 per cent in 2016. It was the biggest ever yearly plunge, to 676 million Swiss francs (about Rs 4,500 crore). Also, it was the lowest ever amount since the European nation began making the data public in 1987.
As per the latest data released by the Swiss National Bank (SNB) on June 28, 2018 ‘the Indian money in Swiss banks included 464 million Swiss francs (Rs 3,200 crore) in the form of customer deposits, 152 million Swiss francs (Rs 1,050 crore) through other banks and 383 million Swiss francs (Rs 2,640 crore) as ‘other liabilities’ such as securities, at the end of 2017, as reported by Bloomberg Quint.
The number of funds held by Indians in Swiss banks stood at a record high of 6.5 billion Swiss francs (Rs 23,000 crore) at the end of 2006 but came down to nearly one-tenth of that level in about a decade.
Since then, this is only the third time when there has been a rise in Indians’ money in Swiss banks – in 2011 (12 per cent), 2013 (43 per cent) and now in 2017 by 50.2 per cent. The maximum increase of 56 per cent was recorded in 2004.
Steps by the Indian Government
Switzerland has already begun sharing foreign client details with India. It has also agreed to support India’s fight against black money with a new pact for automatic information exchange.
According to Indian Express, meetings have taken place between Indian and Swiss government officials on the new structure. Discussions were also held for rushing the pending information requests about suspected illicit accounts of Indians in Swiss banks.
The Swiss authorities revealed the official figures do not indicate the black money held by Indians there. It only shows the funds, described by SNB as ‘liabilities’ of Swiss banks or ‘amounts due to’ their clients. It also does not include the deposits that Indians, NRIs or others might have in Swiss banks in the names of entities from different countries.
Several experts suggest that the dip and the recent rise in money with the Swiss banks coincides with the Indian government’s implementation of black-money prevention measures.
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