The Union Finance Ministry has refused to reveal the Swiss bank accounts details of Indians saying it is covered under “confidentiality provisions” of a tax treaty signed between India and Switzerland.

In reply to an RTI query, the ministry also denied disclosing the details of black money received from other countries.

“Information exchanged under such tax agreements is covered under confidentiality provisions of respective agreements. Thus, disclosure of tax-related information and information sought/obtained from foreign governments is exempted under section 8 (1) (a) and 8 (1) (f) of the Right to Information (RTI) Act,” it said in response to the RTI application filed by a PTI journalist.

The section 8 (1) (a) restricts disclosure of information “which would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the State, relation with foreign State or lead to incitement of an offence.”

The other section exempts disclosure of “information received in confidence from a foreign government”.

The ministry was asked to disclose the information received from Switzerland related to Indians accounts in banks there. It was also asked to provide the details of the information received from foreign countries on black money, including details of such cases shared with India.

In September, India received the first set of Swiss bank account details of its nationals under a new automatic information exchange pact.

India is among 75 countries with which Switzerland’s Federal Tax Administration (FTA) has exchanged information on financial accounts within the framework of global standards on Automatic Exchange of Information.

There are rumours that many Indians might have shut their accounts after a global crackdown on black money, forcing Switzerland to open its banking sector for scrutiny.

Switzerland agreed to AEOI with India after a lengthy process, including review of a necessary legal framework in India on data protection and confidentiality.

The National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), one of the institutes commissioned in 2011 by the then UPA government to conduct research on black money, has estimated wealth accumulated outside India between $384 billion and $490 billion from 1980 to 2010.

During1997-2009, illicit financial flows out of the country have been in the range of 0.2% to 7.4% of GDP, according to the National Institute of Public and Finance Police (NIPFP).

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