Swiss Gold Exports To India Near 1 Trillion In 2014

BERNE/NEW DELHI: Amid concerns of bullion trade being used for routing of black money, Switzerland's gold exports to India have risen further and is fast approaching 1 trillion mark for the entire 2014.

The Swiss gold exports to India stood at over 2.8 billion Swiss francs in October, up from about 2.2 billion Swiss francs in the previous month, shows the latest data from the Swiss Customs Administration.

This has taken the total Swiss gold exports to India since January this year to 14.2 billion Swiss francs (nearly Rs 93,000 crore), as per the data compiled by Switzerland's cross-border trade monitoring agency.

This surge in gold shipments has made India the largest destination for the yellow metal exports from Switzerland.

There are concerns that gold trade could be a possible route for laundering of unaccounted wealth, suspected to be stashed by Indians in Swiss banks, although there has been no official word from either countries so far in this regard.

The Supreme Court-constituted SIT, however, said in its latest report on black money that a dedicated institutional mechanism needs to be put in place to examine "mismatch between export/import data with corresponding import/export data of other countries on at least a quarterly, if not a monthly basis."

The SIT said that this suggestion has been made by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), while citing the Data Analysis and Research for Trade Transparency System adopted by US, to control over/under invoicing to some extent.