Pakistanis have $200 billion in Swiss banks

It is no secret that Pakistani politicians, bureaucrats, businessmen and some terrorist networks have been transferring huge amounts of money to Swiss banks, generated through illegal activities. Pakistan is facing the challenge of measuring and countering enormous revenue leakages and black money, its size estimated to be three time the regular economy.According to an estimate, the money lying in Swiss banks of Pakistanis is to the tune of US $200 billion which appears plausible as parallel economy is growing at an alarming rate of 20 percent per annum.The volume of black money generated in the year 2008-09 alone was not less than US$40bn. This is still not final. It does not account for kickbacks in foreign trade, smuggling and foreign exchange.Till today, no effort appears to have been made by NAB, Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), FIA, Anti Narcotics Force (AFN) or Narcotics Control Board to conduct an in-depth study to quantify the magnitude of black money and amounts shifted to Swiss banks.Pakistani tax authorities, knowing that there exists a treaty of avoidance of double taxation and exchange of tax information with the Swiss government, have not yet taken any step to probe into hidden Swiss accounts of Pakistanis.--Monitoring