Black money: Switzerland to provide information to India in a time-bound manner

Berne/New Delhi: In a major breakthrough in India's fight against black money allegedly stashed abroad, Switzerland said it will examine Indian requests for banking information on a priority basis and provide requested details in a time-bound manner.

The Swiss authorities would also "assist in obtaining confirmation on genuineness of bank documents on request by the Indian side and also swiftly provide information on requests related to non-banking information".

"... the Swiss competent authority will provide the Indian side with the requested information in a time-bound manner or else indicate the reasons why the cases cannot be answered within the agreed timeline," a Swiss-Indian joint statement said after a high-level meeting between the official of the two countries on tax matters.

The meeting took place in Berne between Revenue Secretary Shaktikanta Das and his Swiss counterpart, State Secretary for International Financial Matters, Jacques de Watteville.

They discussed various bilateral and multilateral tax and financial issues and also agreed on continuing the dialogue between the two countries, a statement from Swiss government said.