No information from Switzerland on black money: Jaitley

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Monday said Swiss authorities have not shared any information or given an assurance on sharing details about Indian account holders in Swiss banks, where a major portion of the black money is supposed to be stashed away.

"We have till now not received any information regarding the black money accounts from the Swiss authorities," Jaitley told reporters.

The finance minister was reacting to a media report that said Swiss authorities have agreed to share the details of Indian account holders.

Jaitley said there is no official communication so far, and the Indian authorities will send a request to the Swiss authorities for sharing the information.

"Our communication will be sent today itself," Jaitley told reporters outside his North Block office.

As part of its efforts to bring back black money, the Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on its first day in office constituted a special investigative team to unearth illicit money.

Under the chairmanship of M B Shah, SIT had its first meeting on June 2. The other members of the team comprised another retired Supreme Court judge Arijit Pasayat as vice-chairman, Revenue Secretary, directors of CBI, IB, RAW and ED, the CBDT Chairman and an RBI deputy governor.

The panel has jurisdiction in cases where investigations have commenced or are waiting to be initiated or have been completed.

Swiss government has been refusing to share details about the Indians named in this 'HSBC list', which was stolen by a bank employee and later found its way to tax authorities in various countries including India.

Despite repeated requests from India, Switzerland had maintained that its local laws prohibit administrative assistance in matters where information has been sourced illegally, including through stolen lists.

The said 'HSBC list' allegedly contains names of Indians and other foreign nationals having ill-gotten wealth in Swiss unit of the global banking major.

India is one of the 36 countries with which Switzerland has signed treaties to provide administrative assistance in tax matters in accordance with international standards.