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India weighing pros and cons of having UK-Swiss like tax pact

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Press Trust of India New Delhi
Last Updated : Jan 20 2013 | 3:44 AM IST

"India will have to take a decision first as to whether such type of agreement will meet its national objective where it can get an opportunity to share taxes with the Swiss government on assets held by Indian residents in Switzerland without learning the identity of the defaulting Indian residents," according to the White Paper on black money tabled in Parliament today.

"Government of India looks forward to discussion on this important issue within and outside Parliament before taking any further steps," it noted.

Switzerland has entered into similar revenue sharing agreements with the UK, Germany and Austria.

Noting that India has already taken up this issue with Switzerland, the White Paper said that however the government needs to assess the costs and likely benefits of the step before taking any policy decision.

"It may be seen that the agreement between the UK and Switzerland is more of a revenue-sharing model which allows revenue sharing at the cost of disclosing identity," it said.

To curb the menace of black money, Indian government is looking at various options to bring back unaccounted money stashed by Indian citizens abroad.

The revised Indo-Swiss Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement allows India to get banking and other information in specific cases that relate to the period starting from 1 April 2011, with limited retrospective application.

  

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First Published: May 21 2012 | 7:15 PM IST

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