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Mr L.K. Advani

Our Bureau

Mumbai, April 17 Slush money stashed away in secret Swiss bank accounts and other tax havens across the world has come into sharp focus again, with the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Prime Ministerial candidate, Mr L.K. Advani, underlining the need to end banking secrecy in these countries.

India should become an active player in the global crusade against banking secrecy and tax havens, he said, reiterating that a BJP-led government would seek to bring back the country’s wealth from foreign shores and use it for developmental projects.

“The dimensions of the loot may be denied but not the fact of the loot,” he told mediapersons here on Friday.

He also unveiled the interim report of the party’s task force that, based on studies conducted abroad, estimated the Indian wealth in Swiss bank accounts and other tax havens to be between $500 billion or about Rs 25 lakh crore to $1.4 trillion or Rs 70 lakh crore.

The credibility of the estimate is reinforced by the $11.5 trillion (Rs 575 lakh crore) officially given by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), at the G-20 Summit in London earlier this month, as the amount of global wealth parked in various tax havens, the report said.

Further, Mr Advani said, the issue of black money is linked to security especially after the National Security Adviser referred to the stock market boom due to terror funds.

There are at least 70 tax havens all over the world, he pointed out. People are concerned with the economy and security, and this issue of hoarding illegal wealth combines both how the economy should be handled and how security can be handled, he said.

Pointing out that the US President, Mr Barack Obama, was planning anti-tax haven laws, and the global climate was more conducive to tackling such issues now, Mr Advani said that India should seize the opportunity.

India must urge the German government to provide details of the Indian names from the LGT bank secret records it has accessed from Liechtenstein, a European tax haven. It must appoint a special ambassador to work with the G-20 specifically to frame India-friendly rules to expose secret banking.

The task force report outlined a national strategy to deal with the issue, including becoming a full-fledged member of the Financial Action Task Force and using financial intelligence sharing for security purposes.

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