People's Democracy

Get Details Of  Swiss Bank Accounts

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) issued the following statement on February 23, 2009.

SWISS banks with secret accounts are known to hold substantial sums of money deposited by Indians. These funds amounting to billions of dollars were either illegally taken out of the country, or, were deposited in Switzerland and other tax havens instead of being repatriated to India. 

Recently, UBS, the largest Swiss bank, agreed to provide information to the US government of account holders who are suspected to have evaded taxes in the US. The British prime minister Gordon Brown has also called for divulging of accounts of British nationals in Switzerland and other tax havens who have evaded taxes.

It is imperative that the UPA government demand from Swiss banks and from banks in tax havens details of accounts of Indians.  In the case of India, it is not only a case of tax evasion but also of funds being illegally stashed abroad, or, used for money laundering.

If the government is serious about stopping black money and raising resources to meet the growing economic crisis, it must take steps to bring back the unaccounted, or, ill-gotten wealth of Indians abroad.