New Delhi, March 27
While stating that Switzerland is not cooperating with the Indian government to disclose bank accounts, Finance Minister P Chidambaram has threatened to initiate action in a multilateral forum.

The Finance Ministry today released a letter written by Chidambaram on March 13 to his Swiss counterpart wherein he has stated that Switzerland is not disclosing information on accounts held by Indians in Swiss bank accounts and India is seriously concerned by it.

The letter points out that in some cases of serious tax evasion the investigation would become statutorily time-barred on March 31 and India has asked Switzerland to respond at the earliest.

The Swiss authorities, through a letter in February, have conveyed that they are closing the requests made by India in 562 cases.

Chidambaram’s letter also refers to the HSBC list of bank accounts that India has sought from the Swiss authorities. The Indian government has conveyed that it is seriously concerned that some Indian taxpayers may have parked substantial unaccounted income and assets in foreign jurisdictions and it expects cooperation from such jurisdictions.

Chidambaram has threatened to drag Switzerland to multilateral fora such as G20 for continuing to block its requests. The two-page letter to his Swiss counterpart Eveline Widmer Schlumpf, reminded him of the April 2009 declaration adopted by G20 leaders stating the era of bank secrecy is over.

India might examine further steps like declaring Switzerland a non-cooperative jurisdiction if non-cooperation continues.

Chidambaram said Switzerland has not honoured the terms of the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) between the two nations, under which information about Indians with accounts in Swiss banks has been sought by the tax authorities.

“Switzerland’s refusal to provide information to India and other countries on the grounds that the source of the information requested is based on stolen data means that, in practice, Switzerland still believes in bank secrecy and is therefore not in tune with the modern era,” he said.

Recalling the G20 stand that sanctions may be deployed to protect their public finances and financial systems, he said, “If information continues to be denied to India under DTAC (Double Taxation Avoidance Convention), the Government of India will be constrained to take a position in the global forum.”

He said India would not hesitate to tell global forums that Switzerland still does not comply with the standards of transparency and that the required legal and regulatory framework is still not in place in Switzerland.

New Delhi, March 27
Samsung Electronics today unveiled its flagship and highest priced smartphone, Galaxy S5, in India. It is priced between Rs 51,000 and Rs 53,000.

The device would be available in retail market from April 11 and the pre-bookings would start on March 29.

The handset runs on the latest Android Kit Kat Operating System. It has a 5.1-inch Super AMOLED (1080 x 1920p) display and is powered by an octa-core processor and 2GB RAM.

The device has 16 GB of internal storage, expandable up to 128 GB. It features a 16 MP rear and 2.1 MP front-facing camera and a 2800mAh battery.

The company also launched Galaxy Gear Fit, a fitness band that doubles up as a smartwatch, priced at Rs 15,900. The company also launched Galaxy Gear 2, and Galaxy Gear 2 Neo, priced at Rs 21,900 and Rs 15,900, respectively.

Chandigarh, March 27
Canadian Nectar Products (CNP), a fruit growing, processing and marketing company equipped to cater to the international market, today invited investors to participate in a 1,000-acre apple orchards integrated project in Prince Edward Island in Canada.

Amarjeet Singh Jatana, president and CEO of the company, said initially they were opening up 150 acres for investment. The company is offering a 10-acre orchard for high-quality apple business for 4,00,000 Canadian dollars (approx Rs 2.28 crore) with the promise of high-quality infrastructure for cultivation, processing, grading and controlled area storage and marketing of the produce to both neighbouring and far-off apple-consuming international markets.

CNP’s sister concern, Caucasian Nectar Products, is also involved in establishing fruit orchard in the Republic of Georgia in East Europe and is catering to the international market.

“Canada has tremendous trade opportunities with the signing of free trade agreements. Canadian produce and products have great market potential. I am hopeful that CNP is going to produce quality fruits and cater to the international market, including Indian sub-continent,” said Gurmant Grewal, adviser to CNP.

Mumbai, March 27
The BSE benchmark Sensex today rose to a fresh lifetime closing high of 22,214.37 points on sustained FII buying in banking and oil and gas shares amid hopes that the economy would be on recovery path soon and the RBI will hold interest rates steady.

The 30-share Sensex touched an all-time intra-day high of 22,307.74. This is the fourth day in succession that the key index has risen to record high levels intra-day.

The BSE barometer moved for most of the day in the positive terrain before settling at 22,214.37, up 119.07 points or 0.54% from its previous close.

The NSE Nifty rose by 40.35 points or 0.61% to end at a new peak of 6,641.75. It recorded historical intra-trade high of 6,673.95.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth Rs 1,004.52 crore yesterday, as per provisional data with stock exchanges.

Brokers also ascribed the rise to hectic short-covering on the last day of March contract of Futures and Options. — PTI

Kolkata, March 27
Infrastructure financing company, Srei Infrastructure Finance Ltd today said the Reserve Bank has given its approval for setting up 9,000 white-label ATMs in the next three years in the rural India.

"Srei has been permitted to set up 9,000 WLAs in the next three years in rural India," the company said.

Initially, a pilot rollout of 200 WLAs in tier-3, tier-4 and tier-5 towns would be done in the next six to eight months before it was scaled up, it said.

Srei said it would leverage its over 27,000 IT-enabled Common Service Centres (CSCs) which were already in operation by village-level entrepreneurs (VLEs) through Sahaj e-Village Limited. — PTI

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