Switzerland consents to give details of Pakistani accounts in Swiss banks: Dar

ISLAMABAD: Swiss authorities have agreed to provide information about Pakistani accounts in Swiss banks, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said in a policy statement in the National Assembly on Wednesday, ARY News reported.

Swiss authorities have consented to sign an agreement on our conditions, Dar said in a statement on the floor of the lower house.

The two sides will sign the agreement on March 21st.

Several meetings were held between the two sides and now the Swiss Authorities have invited Pakistan to sign the agreement, the minister said.

Finance Minister said Pakistan has already signed the Multilateral Convention on Tax Matters with Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on September 14, 2016 which is going to be operationalized next year.

It will be impossible to keep tax evasion money in these countries after operationalization of this convention, he said.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar in his May 14, 2014, statement had informed the National Assembly that at least $200 billion of Pakistani money was stashed away in Swiss banks.

The minister had told the house in a written reply that the government was engaging with Swiss authorities to get to the money, hidden away by various Pakistani nationals.

The minister in his detailed response to a question raised by Dr Arif Alvi of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), had quoted statements by a Swiss banker and a former Swiss government minister: “One of the directors of Credit Suisse AG stated on the record that $97 billion worth of Pakistani capital was deposited only in his bank. Similarly, Micheline Calmy-Rey, a former Swiss foreign minister, is reported to have put the amount of Pakistani money hidden in Switzerland at $200 billion — a statement that was never contradicted,” he revealed.

The minister had said that he believed the figures were correct.