Chidambaram accuses Switzerland of protecting tax evaders

Chidambaram accuses Switzerland of protecting tax evaders

- In third letter to counterpart, he protests refusal to share info

- India has accused Switzerland of “providing protection to taxpayers found to have evaded Indian taxes” and seriously undermining India’s efforts at tackling offshore tax evasion and stashing away unaccounted income abroad.”

- Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, in his third letter to his Swiss counterpart Eveline Widmer Schlumpf within four months, strongly objected to Switzerland’s denial of information about account details of certain Indians at HSBC’s Swiss bank branches in whose cases Indian investigators have found “incriminating evidence of tax evasion”.

- Mr. Chidambaram also wrote that the interpretation made by Switzerland that it could not share information as per India’s request was not in accordance with international standards. -Switzerland had refused to share the said information through a letter dated April 7 to Chidambaram.

- The stated reason was that India initiated investigations on the “HSBC” accounts on the basis of information extracted from data a disgruntled.