Indian money in Swiss Bank fell 34.5 pct in 2017: Piyush Goel

Goyal made this statement in the Rajya Sabha and rejected reports which cited the Swiss National Bank as stating in its annual report that Indian deposits had risen by 50 per cent in 2017.

While making this claim, Goyal cited data from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), global body of central banks.

The Finance Minister also informed the lawmakers that he had taken up the issue with the Swiss authorities who have informed him in a written reply that media reports failed to take account of the way the SNB figures have to be interpreted.

Earlier media reports quoting an official annual data released by the Swiss National Bank revealed that money stashed by Indians in Swiss Bank rose to 50 percent to CHF 1.01 billion (Rs 7,000 crore) in 2017.

The Indian money deposited in Swiss banks had fallen by 45 percent in 2016 but in 2017, the total funds held by Indians directly with Swiss banks rose to 999 million Swiss franc (Rs 6,891 crore), media reports had said.

According to the data, the Indian money in Swiss banks included CHF 464 million (Rs 3,200 crore) in the form of customer deposits, CHF 152 million (Rs 1,050 crore) through other banks and CHF 383 million (Rs 2,640 crore) as ‘other liabilities’ such as securities at the end of 2017.

The claim was made even after the Centre constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to  to probe cases of alleged black money of Indians stashed abroad in places like Swiss bank as per the Supreme Court's direction.