"Understand Basics": Arun Jaitley Counters Congress On Swiss Bank Data

Arun Jaitley underlined that Swiss Banks are "no longer an ideal destination for tax evaders"

Arun Jaitley hit back at the Congress for assuming that a spike in Swiss Bank deposits by Indians was due to black money, asserting that those who participate in a public discourse must understand "basic facts".

"To assume that all the deposits are per se tax evaded money or that Switzerland in the matter of illegal deposits is what it was decades ago, is to start on a shaky presumption," the former finance minister said in a blog.

Mr Jaitley's rebuttal came hours after Congress president Rahul Gandhi took a swipe at the government for changing the goal posts and suggesting that the spike in Indian money in Swiss Banks is not black money. Mr Gandhi's party had followed up, pointing that Swiss Bank deposits had declined during the UPA government's tenure but risen during the tenure of PM Narendra Modi.

The Congress's stinging jab came after the Swiss Banks reported that deposits by Indians rose by 50 per cent in 2017, reversing a three-year downward trend. This news, Mr Jaitley said, had led to a "misinformed reaction in certain circles" questioning "whether the Government's anti-black money steps have yielded results".

Piyush Goyal, who is filling Mr Jaitley's shoes in the finance ministry till he completely recovers from a renal transplant surgery, had earlier in the day wondered how the opposition was assuming that all deposits in Swiss Banks was tax evaded money.

According to official data, deposits by Indians have made up for a very small share of money held by Swiss banks. The latest report for 2017 by Swiss Banks has put the value of the deposits by Indians at about Rs 7,000 crore.

But deposits in Swiss Banks, once the favoured destination of tax evaders in India, have been synonymous with black money in the country's political discourse for decades.

Mr Jaitley said this wasn't true any longer.

Swiss Banks are "no longer an ideal destination for tax evaders" because the Alpine nation has taken significant efforts to get out of the image of being a tax haven, he said.

Citing investigations by the tax department in the past, Mr Jaitley said deposits by 'Indians' reported by the banks comprises accounts held by Indian nationals who later took foreign citizenship and Non Resident Indians as well. The tax department does not have the jurisdiction over these two categories of depositors.

Besides, it also includes Indian residents making legitimate investments abroad.

If the deposits by the Indian residents are not legitimate, he said "it is per se illegal for which investigations are undertaken, arrests and made and criminal prosecutions are launched".

Sources suggest it is unlikely that a significant number of tax evaders would have headed to Swiss Banks, particularly after they agreed to share information on all transactions by Indian nationals with the tax department here.