Among the things that may not after all matter a great deal to Switzerland but actually mean something very relevant to India is the fact that apparently, the Swiss banks have no fewer than 20,700 crore worth of Indian funds. Yes, that’s right and you read the figure absolutely correctly.
Take into account, for a second, the massiveness of this number. Funds worth 20,700 crore (Indian rupee) is and can never be a small amount- can it? So the key question is- at a time where the Indian authorities have reportedly, time and again, claimed to have been keeping a close eye on the funds stashed away in Swiss banks, how is it that an amount as whopping as what was reported is kept safely away in Switzerland?
Does the above, therefore, lead to a situation where we can safely say there’s a rat in the room and the stench is too foul to ignore? The next question is, what is the Indian government going to do about this situation?
Now, here is what you need to know. Soon as news arrived about the stacking of an absurd amount of Indian funds in Swiss banks, the Finance Ministry, reportedly, immediately refuted the allegations that the amount that’s away in the central European nation is black money.
But if it isn’t and all this cash is white, why is it not then reserved with the Indian banks and on the contrary, is stocked in Swiss banks?
What will the Finance Ministry say now? Moreover, how urgently can the country- provided it is still very much within our legal rights to question- get to know as to which individuals have kept their money away in the Swiss banks?
Can any of these pertinent questions be responded to and in a timely manner?
What one may find additionally strange, in lines with the response already levelled by the Finance ministry is that the sum of 20,700 crore does not merit to be adjudged as the ‘quantum of funds’ pertaining to black money. Furthermore, the ministry has also shared that the funds currently in Swiss banks are actually financial instruments like bonds, securities and other forms of investment.
Meanwhile, the official statement from the Ministry of Finance in response to the aforementioned allegations read something like this:
“Media reports allude to the fact that the figures reported are official figures reported by banks to Swiss National Bank (SNB) and do not indicate the quantum of much debated alleged black money held by Indians in Switzerland. Further, these statistics do not include the money that Indians, NRIs or others might have in Swiss banks in the names of third–country entities!”
And that’s not all, the Centre has clearly stated that the amount of funds found currently in the Swiss banks have actually halved since the year 2019. A report published on Republic World had the following to share:
The Ministry cited the fall in the customer deposits from 2019 stating, “The funds held through fiduciaries has also more than halved from end of 2019.” It also stated that exchanges of Financial Account information in respect of residents of each country have taken place between both countries in 2019 and 2020 and in view of the information exchanged, ‘there does not appear to be any significant possibility of the increase of deposits in the Swiss banks which is out of undeclared incomes of Indian residents’.