Black money: Swiss to help on stolen data too

In a move that may help India’s fight against black money, Switzerland on Wednesday proposed amending its laws to share information with foreign countries probing tax crimes on the basis of ‘stolen data’, provided details have come from administrative channels or public sources.

A bill in this regard was today approved by the Swiss Federal Council, the top-most policy making <g data-gr-id="16">body</g> of the Switzerland government, and it would be discussed in Parliament after a public consultation process.

The proposal assumes significance for India because it is probing hundreds of its citizens for suspected hoarding of alleged black money in Swiss banks and their names are part of a much longer list of account holders in HSBC’s Geneva branch which was ‘stolen’ by a former bank employee.

The list later found its way to the French government, which shared the relevant names with its Indian counterpart.