In India there are popular and common saying about SWISS BANK account of the politicians and rich. Every citizen discusses it with much hatred. It’s always in gossip for the billions of people of India every day.It runs with a first sip of a small tea vendor shop and ends with a late night drinks on the rock. It’s endless. No one ever dreamed that the said details could be made available by just writing an acceptance to an offer made by German authorities.

The list of rich Indians who have black money parked in Liechtenstein, a tax haven, could be made available to the Indian authorities as the German government, which has obtained a list of account holders at Liechtenstein’ s LTG Bank, is willing to part with the names. German federal government has been willing to do this free of charge since February. Liechtenstein, like many other countries including Switzerland, St Kitts, Canary Islands, Antigua and Bahamas, has been a haven for wealthy people to hide their ill-gotten wealth away from the prying eyes of tax authorities. Referring to certain reports, the Transparency International (TI) mentioned that German intelligence agency —BND — has details of about 800 clients of LTG Bank — run by Liechtenstein’s ruling dynasty. “The Indian ministry of finance and PMO have, however, not shown much interest in finding out about those who have their lockers in the secret banks of Liechtenstein which prides itself in its banking system,'’ TI said.

The delay in accepting the offer from Germany to reveal the names of those who have illegally stashed away money in Liechtenstein is questionable. Many, if not most, of the account holders are likely to be corrupt politicians and others hiding wealth obtained by dubious means, as Transparency International has rightly pointed out. If the government is serious about cleansing public life in India, the least it can do is accept such fortuitous offers with alacrity. The citizens have a right to know who is secreting away public money into personal accounts and the government has a duty to get that information if it can. Further Government may face an embracement if some one decides to move to Supreme Court to claim an order to Government to accept the offer.