Mumbai, June 29: Arun Jaitley, in a Facebook post, has written on the reports of Indian money in Swiss banks going up by 50%  to Rs 7000 crore in 2017 by saying that "to assume all deposits are per se tax evaded money or Switzerland in the matter of illegal deposits is what it was decades ago, is to start on a shaky presumption." He further claimed that Switzerland has taken steps to get out of the tax haven image that it had earned over the years. Earlier in the day, Congress President Rahul Gandhi, had taken a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi citing the report. Interim Finance Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday said that Switzerland will provide all data on black money by the end of this financial year, i.e., March 2019.

Arun Jaitley further wrote, "Switzerland has taken significant efforts to get out of image of being a tax haven & a non-compliant state. It is on verge of making disclosures in real time & therefore, is no longer an ideal destination for tax evaders."

On the news about the rise of Indian money parked in the Swiss banks he clarified that "A news item has appeared today indicating an increase of money by ‘Indians’ in the Swiss banking system. This has led to misinformed reaction in certain circles raising a query whether the Government’s anti-black money steps have yielded results."

He then clarified that "Indian money outside the country is of various categories. Past investigation by CBDT have shown that this includes many held by persons of Indian origin who now hold foreign passport, monies belonging to Non-Resident Indians, as also monies belonging to resident Indians who have made legitimate investments abroad, including transfer of money under the liberalised remittance schemes. It is only monies kept by resident Indian outside these categories which become actionable."

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 29, 2018 06:03 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).