India, Switzerland and 45 other nations had agreed upon automatic exchange of tax information, which is seen as a major step forward in global efforts against banking secrecy practices.
The endorsement of the 'Declaration on Automatic Exchange of Information in Tax Matters' under the aegis of think-tank OECD last week had paved the way for finalising a single global standard in this regard later this year in September.
Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) sets the global tax standards and frames conventions against tax frauds, among others.
With respect to automatic exchange of tax information, he said things are at early stages in terms of developing the standard as well as "getting the commitments".
By becoming part of the declaration, these countries have committed to implementing automatic exchange of tax information. The declaration also comes as a boost for India, which is making efforts to get details from Switzerland on alleged illicit funds stashed away by Indians there.
Automatic exchange of information would allow for "collecting all bank information on non-resident to pass this information on to the countries of residence of these taxpayers so that they can no longer hide money on offshore accounts," Pascal Saint-Amans said.