Swiss Bank Accounts Bleeding the Country
B R LALL
Transparency International India recently exposed how the Indian Government is not seeking information from the German Government about billions of dollars of unaccounted money that belongs to the people of India, lying in Liechtenstein, a small German county. A number of other countries like USA, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Canada, Italy, U.K and Ireland whose nationals are also included in the same list are seriously collecting the information about their citizens.
As per Transparency International, if asked, German Government has offered to provide information on accounts to various nations the world over including India, free of cost, but India refuses to take the offer. I had visualized such situation long back as while dealing with this issue.
I had foreseen this attitude of the Government, pointing out clearly in my book `Who Owns CBI: The Naked Truth’ that “It will not be easy to take any step in this direction, as the first obstacle will come from Indian elites, who are holding such accounts/ assets abroad. They will oppose any such move tooth and nail. But no meaningful fight against corruption, black money and plethora of economic offences can be really successful without such radical measures.” I had attempted the analysis in context of Switzerland alone and had assessed Indian wealth in that single country at $5 trillions, but there are some other well known SLUSH PARKS like St Kitts, Antigua, Bahamas, Isle of Man that will multiply such holdings manifold . Of course Switzerland remains the roof and crown of the slush parks and if Indian wealth lying there is added and can be brought home, we will turn into one of the top rich nations on the globe.
The countries of the third world suffer heavily on this account as it causes a great drain on their economies and they have no option but to borrow strong doses from abroad. If only the outflow of their resources could be checked, some of the countries of the third world, like India, may have enough of Foreign Exchange resources and may not borrowfrom abroad at all and still will have enough to invest as well.
Indian resources get transferred abroad where these are invested to generate employment and incomes. Other countries develop and prosper at our cost. No wonder Switzerland has the second highest per capita income, with this criminal banking industry in the lead. This drain from the third world will continue unabated unless certain structural changes are brought about.
Banking Secrecy Laws abroad
The holdings abroad cannot be checked as banks cover themselves with the veil of secrecy. However the slush money arising out of drug trade is being treated differently. If it is suspected that the money in a bank has some relation with the drug trade, the secrecy laws stand automatically relaxed, as these have been amended to that extent. It was done on insistence of the big western powers, as drugs are their problem.
After attack on World Trade Centre in New York on 11th September 2001, money held by terrorists has also been frozen. For countries like India, all economic offenders including the corrupt as also the cooperating Swiss-bankers are the ‘Financial Terrorists’ or their harbourers.
The major problems of the third world is corruption, and the secrecy laws aid and abet it. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the people of countries like Switzerland are more like receivers of stolen property and are leading parasitic existence. This hypocrisy does not go well with their famed high stance on morality.
They should abandon such laws and throw their banking business open and transparent. India should take up this question with Swiss banks, the western world and with all possible international organizations, including the U.N, OECD, etc.
The countries of the third world, and India in particular, should agitate for relaxation of banking secrecy laws. Apart from bank accounts, another dimension is that property or some other assets thatcould be purchased abroad. Since the agency of one country cannot conduc investigations in another country, some rules need to be framed so that the particulars of deposits or properties held abroad could be known to the mother country, in the name of whose citizens these may stand.
Following measures are suggested in Indian context in particular, however the same hold good for all other countries similarly placed:
a) Whenever a bank account is opened by an Indian citizen abroad, the particulars of such account should be communicated to the Indian authorities, through its embassy/high commission in that country. On receipt, the account number and other details should be fed into the National Property Register (NPR) immediately and could also be compiled in the CBI. National property registered is visualized as a master computer that will store all the assets in the names of all the individuals with each being allotted a unique identity as per finger print classification.
b) If the person is found involved in some crime or a criminal case, particularly of corruption or any other white-collar crime registered against him in India, then the particulars of balances in account and the copy of the account, if asked for authentically by the investigating agency, should be supplied. One such nodal agency will be nominated by each country. In this context the authorised agency for India should be CBI. If any state agency or any other agency of the government of India needs some information, it could approach the CBI. The foreign bank/government should have no discretion but to supply duly certified copies of accounts/ information whenever demanded by the nodal agency, CBI in this case.
c) Whenever an Indian purchases a property abroad, its details like those of bank accounts be informed by the registering authority there, to the Indian Embassy/High Commission, who will transmit the same to India. This information could also be fed into the National Property Register and also compiled in CBI and used when required.
d) Details of all the properties and the bank deposits held abroad by the Indian citizens at present should be supplied to Indian Embassy/High Commission in the respective countries.
e) Further, on instructions from CBI, the accounts should automatically be frozen, the lockers, the properties and other assets sealed and ultimately these assets be disposed of as per directions of the Indian courts.
f) For obtaining/supplying such information, the dual criminality may not be insisted upon, as corruption is a crime everywhere, only some technical details may differ.
Similarly, the blanket sovereign guarantee of reciprocity may be executed once at the level of the governments and should not be insisted upon for every case separately as that causes tremendous delays.
Once this happens, hiding black incomes abroad will become very difficult and practically impossible. India will start looking up, immediately. But to get such amendments to their rules, India has to take other countries of the third world along, prepare a lobby and initiate very persuasive and aggressive propaganda underscoring the point that we are also readily helping them in their fight against drug and terrorism.
Prime Minister Has to Act
The country expects action from the Prime Minister who is revered as an economist, as an academician and as an honest person though by and large dishonest and fraudulent crowds who themselves may be having such accounts surround him like any other person in power. It may be argued that government will fall as most of the elites including some of the civil servants also hold such slush .The moot point is whether the PM owes his loyalty to such criminals or to the nation. What if the government of the day falls,the nation will surely rise?
The nation will be galvanized, will be hopeful about future and select a more honest team. The PM is fortunate to be blessed with this great opportunity , but if he ignores or misses it, he will be answerable to the nation, to himself and to the history .Such tailor-made opportunities seldom visit though only the brave can avail and the nincompoops keep sulking.
B.R. Lall
H.No. 11, Officers Colony – II
Opp. Civil Lines, Gurgaon – 122 001
Ph. 95124-4063433
Email : brlall@gmail.com
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