NEW DELHI: The Government threatens to publish 30 names in official gazette after Switzerland pledges to help tax officials in India.
HSBC customers in India suspected of tax evasion have been given 30 days to nominate a legal representative in Switzerland or face seeing their names published in the country’s official gazette.
The bank has in the last two weeks forwarded a letter from the Swiss government to a select number of Indian customers, which warns that Switzerland is now prepared to give “administrative assistance” to Indian tax investigators.
This could take the form of disclosing the identities of owners of HSBC Suisse accounts, the assets they contained, and details of individual transactions. Tax evaders who refuse to co-operate will be publicly named.
India has been trying for five years to bring to book those who hid fortunes in black accounts opened with HSBC’s now notorious alpine bank.
Customers have one month to nominate a third party based in Switzerland, such as a lawyer, to manage or challenge the disclosure process on their behalf, according to a spokesman for Switzerland’s State Secretariat for International Finance.
He said: “Our law does not allow the Swiss government to send tax inquiries to citizens of other countries. That is why they need to nominate a third party in Switzerland. Customers have 30 days to provide an address in Switzerland, otherwise the Swiss government will publish their name in the official gazette. It is a normal procedure in administrative assistance.
“Only a very small number of HSBC clients are concerned. These are limited cases where the Indian authorities had additional information.”
In February, around 1,200 Indian clients were revealed to have held HSBC accounts in Geneva, with the names of leading political and business families published by the Indian Express newspaper as part of a global exposé by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
