The Union Finance Ministry, after due consultations with the SIT on black money and various financial probe agencies, has decided that a team of senior officials will hold bilateral meetings with foreign jurisdictions either in India or at the locations of their counterparts to thrash out issues quickly.
"The step is aimed to cut down on the time taken in paper-based documentation and communication in cases of illegal funds stashed abroad.
The face-to-face engagements are aimed at understanding the problems faced by authorities abroad in parting with information related to black money and solve those at the earliest.
"Bilateral discussions, including through conference calls and face-to-face meetings with the competent authorities of our treaty partners which now include well known tax havens and offshore financial centres such as British Virgin Islands, Jersey, UAE and Singapore are being planned and the cooperation in this regard will be deepened in future.
Three such meetings have already taken place and about half-a-dozen mre are lined up this year, including one with the European Union.