India's bid to bring black money back gets Swiss support

New Delhi : Switzerland on Monday registered agreement to give full support to India in a bid to unearth black money slashed by Indians in Swiss banks. Top officials will visit New Delhi to lend their all possible support to Indian authorities.

The black money issue was raised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his talks with Swiss President Johann Schneider-Amman.

Schneider-Amman said his government will send a state secretary for international financial matters to India on June 14 to explore enhancing cooperation on the issue.

The issue claims prime interest as it was among one of the major promises PM Modi had made during his poll campaigns in 2014.

"Combating the menace of black money and tax evasion is also our shared priority. We discussed the need for an early and expeditious exchange of information to bring to justice the tax offenders.

"An early start to negotiations on the Agreement on Automatic Exchange of Information would be important in this respect," Modi, who arrived here this morning on a short trip, said at a joint media interaction with Schneider-Amman.

"The delegations also discussed financial policy matters. Switzerland and India stressed their shared resolve to take action against tax fraud and tax avoidance and underlined the high quality of their cooperation in this area," the Swiss government said in a press statement.

Swiss banks, known for their banking secrecy practices, have come under global pressure as countries, including India, are stepping up efforts to crack down on the black money menace.