Swiss economic affairs minister Johann N. Schneider Ammann and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. Swiss economic affairs minister Johann N. Schneider Ammann and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

India on Thursday asked Switzerland to expedite the process of sharing detailed information on Indians who have admitted to having accounts in Swiss banks. This was conveyed by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley when the visiting Swiss economic affairs minister Johann N. Schneider-Ammann met him here on Friday.

Jaitley also told Schneider-Ammann that India is ready to sign a bilateral agreement with Switzerland on sharing of information required to tackle the black money menace. Jaitley recalled that last October it was agreed that if India gave additional evidence over and above the stolen information of the HSBC accounts, Switzerland will cooperate in confirming that within a given time period.

"A large number of these account holders have now made admissions before the government of India. As to whether admission itself is evidence on the basis of which they would act, they said indeed they would," Jaitley explained. "And, this precise fact has been reaffirmed in the meeting today. We have made the request to Switzerland and we have asked them to expedite the process of confirmation of details that we have sought," he told journalists after the meeting.

Jaitley said that India has also asked Switzerland to sign a bilateral information sharing agreement once it joins the global pact for fighting the black money menace. "Additionally, we have requested them that now that Swtizerland has also agreed to join the global mainstream in the fight against unaccounted money by becoming part of the group of nations which will cooperate in the automatic exchange of information, as soon as they are ready, India is immediately ready to enter into a bilateral arrangement with Switzerland to that effect," he said.

The finance minister added there was forward movement on the October 15 agreement between India and Switzerland on the issue of sharing information based on evidence over and above the HSBC stolen bank account list. Jaitley said that he had additionally taken up the subject of Switzerland cooperating with India in the matter of providing evidence with regard to those Indians who have unaccounted assets and accounts in financial institutions and banks in Switzerland.

The Swiss minister on his part said, "The discussion with the minister was very constructive in a partnership mood. What we discussed was that the Switzerland government took a decision to start a Parliamentary process to qualify the basis for the support to solve these issues. Switzerland is prepared to follow the OECD regulations as we were in the past."

Schneider-Ammann had earlier said at a press conference that Switzerland is sensitive to the fact that the issue of black money is very important for India and needs to be resolved. "Switzerland has decided to follow international standards, including those framed by OECD, in sharing information and providing assistance to foreign countries probing such cases, but we have to ask our Parliament to make changes in our laws."