Government to look into black money in Swiss banks entering India via gold import

The government has begun looking into the Swiss banks where the accounted black money is reportedly stashed. The government authorities think that gold imports might be one of the ways to get this money back in the country says a report.

The move comes in the wake of a sharp increase in the import of gold from Switzerland. This year, India has imported 27.7 per cent of the gold exported by Switzerland while in January the imports stood at 15 per cent. From 2014, Swiss authorities have begun disclosing country’s import, as well as export, of precious metals. Between January and October, Switzerland exported 380 tonnes of gold to India. In January, India’s share in Switzerland’s overall gold and silver exports stood at 14.1 per cent. This has increased to 16 per cent, adds a report.

The government has asked the customs department and the RBI to tally the gold imported from Switzerland with export data released by Swiss authorities and the payment for gold by India to banks and traders in Switzerland in March. In case, both sets of data matched, one could conclude there was no direct relation between the gold imported from Switzerland to India and the black money parked in that country.