Switzerland to Inform Azerbaijani Authorities on Bank Deposits of Azerbaijani Citizens

Baku / 02.10.19 / Turan: Switzerland will officially forward banking and tax data to the relevant authorities of another 19 countries, including Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkey. This decision was made by parliament, according to the Swiss public television SRFB.

The deputies understood that the exchange of "sensitive data" with such countries was a "difficult" matter, but for them the first place was to ensure the absence of the country in the various "gray" and "black" lists of "tax havens".

Only the representative of the conservative Swiss People's Party SVP / Zurich, Thomas Matter, spoke out against this. "The principle of Swiss neutrality, to which I am committed wholeheartedly, prohibits me here and now from pointing to fellow MPs about authoritarian governance systems (in these countries), dictatorships, human rights violations and ubiquitous (in these countries) corruption. Nevertheless, from my point of view, it is impossible to send banking information to these countries."

Swiss Finance Minister and his colleague in the "populists" party, Ueli Maurer, did not agree with this approach. According to him, Switzerland is obliged to automatically supply banking and tax data to foreign tax authorities, because it, being the world's leading financial center, has committed to switch to new OECD standards in the field of combating corruption, money laundering and tax evasion. "If it doesn"t do this, then it will face sanctions, which will affect Swiss industry in the first place."

"There is nothing to be done, there are many countries in the world where corrupt systems dominate, and here we should not entertain ourselves with illusions. However, this only means that the exchange of information with such countries should be carried out very carefully and prudently," the Minister said.

Switzerland had previously introduced a similar reporting mechanism with 36 countries, including Russia, China and Saudi Arabia. -02D-