money in Swiss banks, India at 77 place

Switzerland: Switzerland’s Central Bank Swiss National Bank (SNB) has released the ‘Annual Banking Statistics 2019 Report’ The report gives the details of funds parked by foreign individuals and enterprises in Swiss banks. India has moved down three places to 77th rank in terms of money parked by its citizens and enterprises with Swiss banks at the end of 2019. India was ranked 74th in the previous year.

Funds parked by Indian individuals and enterprises in Swiss banks,Fell by 5.8% in 2019 to 899 million Swiss francs (Rs 6,625 crore).In comparison, the top-ranked UK accounted for close to 27% of the total foreign funds parked with Swiss banks at the end of 2019.

Among the top-ranked jurisdictions, the UK is followed by the US, West Indies, France

and Hong Kong in the top five.

The top-five countries alone account for more than 50% of the aggregate foreign funds parked with the Swiss banks, 

while the top-10 accounts for nearly two-thirds.

The top-15 countries account for nearly 75% of all foreign money in Swiss banks,

while the contribution of top-30 is almost 90%.

Among the five-nation BRICS block of emerging economies,

India is ranked the lowest while Russia is ranked the highest at the 20th place (same as last year),

followed by China at 22nd (same as 2018-end), South Africa at 56th (up two places) and Brazil at 62nd.

However, several of India's neighbouring nations are ranked lower,

Pakistan ranked 99th, Bangladesh 85th, Nepal 118th, Sri Lanka 148th, Myanmar 186th and Bhutan 196th.

PAKISTAN ROLE

India’s neighbor Pakistan witnessed a sharp decline in the money parked by its residents in Switzerland last year.It declined by 45% from CHF 745 million in 2018 to CHF 410 million.

DOES IT REFLECT THE ACTUAL FIGURE?

These are official figures reported by banks to the SNB.

Thus it does not indicate the quantum of the much-debated alleged black money held by Indians in Switzerland.

These figures also do not include the money that Indians, NRIs or others might have in Swiss banks in names of third-country entities.

The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) liberalised remittance scheme (LRS) permits

Indian residents to remit up to $2,50,000 every financial year (from April to March) for permissible transactions,

including education, employment, emigration, medical treatment and investments.

Other than transfers made under the LRS scheme, some of the deposits in Swiss banks can also belong to non-resident Indians,

And those who had earlier held an Indian passport, but are now foreign passport holders and are, therefore, not liable to pay tax in India.

After years of extensive negotiations, India and Switzerland had entered into an automatic information-sharing agreement in 2016.

Through which India will get information about its residents and their bank holdings with effect from January 1, 2018, thus ending an era of ‘banking secrecy’.

India can obtain information prior to 2018 only if it has legitimate sources of specific information regarding a tax evader.

1- The currency of this country is Swiss Franc.

2- It is also a double landlocked country.

Identify this country.

A- Austria

B- Liechtenstein

C- Slovakia

D- Luxemburg