Switzerland will exchange the first set of financial data with India in 2019. (Representational)
Starting 2019, India and Switzerland will exchange financial account information - a move meant to flush out black money, much of which is parked in Swiss banks.
The Swiss government formally ratified automatic exchange of financial account information with India today. The first set of data will be exchanged in 2019.
Flushing out black money is one of the key initiatives of the Narendra Modi government, which swept to power in 2014 on an anti-corruption plank.
"This year, Switzerland has introduced the AEOI (Automatic Exchange of Information) with 38 states and territories, including all EU (European Union) member states and data will start to be exchanged with them in 2018," the Swiss Federal Council said today. The council is the top Governing body of the nation.
Switzerland, however, has asked that confidentiality and data security rules be strictly maintained. The Swiss Federal council also said it will prepare a situation report before the first exchange of data, planned for the autumn of 2019.
India had joined the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement - the 60-nation body committed to automatic exchange of financial information in 2015.
The deal obliges the nations to share a wide range of financial information from its financial institutions. The information, the government has said, includes "information about the ultimate controlling persons and beneficial owners of entities".
Once the AEOI is implemented, India would be able to receive information from almost every country in the world including offshore financial centres. It would provide information about the assets of Indians held abroad and help stop international tax evasion.
With inputs from PTI