Black money deposits reduced by 80% since Modi government, says Piyush Goyal

Union Minister for Finance Piyush Goyal announced in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday that the black money deposited in the Swiss National Bank (SNB) has gone down by 80 per cent between 2014 and 2017.

The minister, while addressing the Opposition's accusations that the government is going slow on graft and black money recovery, said that ever since the Narendra Modi government has come to power in 2014, the black money deposited in the SNB has been reduced by 80 per cent.

Goyal also addressed that the figures published by SNB were frequently quoted by the Indian media without taking into account the way the figures are interpreted. Goyal clarified certain media reports on SNB's annual banking statistics that showed a 50 per cent increase in Swiss Bank's total liabilities towards India, saying that the data include non deposit liabilities, inter-bank transactions, business of Swiss branches in India, etc.

The Indian government had signed an agreement with Switzerland on December 21, 2017, to curb the problem of undeclared assets (black money). The Finance Minister said that both countries started collecting data on January 1, 2018 and would start the exchange of data on a yearly basis starting from September 2019.

"This makes relevant information available in India which eliminates the threat of black money and action can be taken against any entity indulging in such activities," said Goyal.

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