New Delhi: Negotiating with Switzerland for unearthing black money stashed there, India will take up specific cases with Swiss banks, who on Tuesday said there must be concrete suspicion or evidence of wrongdoing for them to help.
Highly placed sources said that government is in the process of compiling the details and is expected to approach the Swiss authorities with specific cases.
Notwithstanding a revision in the Double Taxation Agreement between India and Switzerland, the Swiss banks have made it clear that even under the new treaty fishing expeditions would not be allowed.
"I believe that India has lodged a request to revise its Double Taxation Agreement with Switzerland... (but) even under the new agreement and according to Organisation of Economic cooperation and Development Model Tax convention... there must be concrete suspicions and evidence of wrongdoing (for sharing the accounts details)," a top official of Swiss Bankers Association said from Basel.
Government sources here said that India is already negotiating with Swiss government for revising double taxation avoidance treaty. The present treaty between the two nations was signed in 1995.
SBA's Head of International Communications James Nason said "the privacy of clients innocent of any wrongdoing should remain protected and any unjustified snooping be firmly prohibited."
Commenting on the uproar over Swiss banks not disclosing account details to India, the official questioned whether "banks in every other country of the world pin up the names of their clients on their front door for all to see."
"Citizens have a right to a high degree of privacy concerning their financial affairs," Nason said, adding that the Swiss bank-client confidentiality was never 100 per cent absolute, but sharing of details needed evidence of wrongdoings.