Black money: India seeks Swiss help in probe into Preneet Kaur, son bank a/c

Berne/New Delhi: As Indian tax authorities continue to probe several citizens holding Swiss bank accounts, Switzerland today said India has sought assistance in the investigation into accounts allegedly held by former Congress minister Preneet Kaur and her son Raninder Singh.

Under the Swiss norms for 'assistance' in tax matters, which could involve sharing of account and other details, the Federal Tax Administration (FTA) of Switzerland also asked Kaur and Singh to file an appeal within ten days for "exercise of the right to be heard".

The Swiss tax department has made these disclosures in two separate notifications published today in the Switzerland government's federal gazette.

The notifications did not disclose further details about the two, except for their nationality and dates of birth.

When contacted, Raninder said, "We have not received any notice. When we receive one, we will respond".

"Whatever the tax authorities have asked from us, we have complied with the same. We have appeared before the Income Tax authorities and recorded our statement," he told PTI.

Preneet Kaur was, however, not available for comments despite repeated attempts.

Earlier when her name had come up in a leaked HSBC list, Kaur had denied having any account in her name with any foreign bank.

She had also said that her statement was recorded earlier by the tax authorities, but she was not shown any document which might indicate having a foreign bank account or a trust.

Names of several Indians and other foreign nationals have been disclosed in the gazette in recent months following growing global pressure on Switzerland to crack down on its famed banking secrecy practices amid suspicion on these accounts being used to park illicit wealth.

This is the latest in a series of such disclosures made by the FTA about information requests from India and other countries with which Switzerland has mutual assistance treaties in tax-related cases.