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Going by the report, Swiss banks currently manage around $2 trillion offshore assets of clients from various countries.

UBS, which is now mired in a major legal dispute with the US tax authorities, has passed information of over 300 accounts of wealthy American clients to the US Internal Revenue Service. But the IRS is not satisfied with UBS and wants the Swiss bank to provide information on some 52,000 American clients. Besides, two UBS bankers were arrested in the US on the ground that they were involved in tax fraud.

Consequently, UBS and other Swiss private banks are preparing ground to reduce their exposure to offshore banking services in a move to avoid further difficulties for the bank. Other Swiss private bankers too have been discreetly cautioned not to undertake visits in the wake of growing pressure from the G-20 leaders, especially Germany and France, who seem determined to pry open the secret tax havens. But a representative of the Swiss bankers association said there was no general directive to private bankers in Switzerland, suggesting that it is up to each individual bank to decide their foreign travel.

A surprising reaction was that of Bibek Debroy. In an article on April 3, the erudite and scholarly Debroy talked about pricing the loot and suggests the difficulties involved in the same. He used the Global financial Integrity (GFI) report but unfortunately looked only at the summary version.

In their website (http://www.gfip.org/storage/gfip/executive%20-%20final%20version%201-5-09.pdf), a detailed report is available (Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Countries: 2002-2006, authors Dev Kar and Devon-Cartwright Smith --- A project of Ford Foundation). Page 30 of the full report gives a clearer picture for India.

Financial flows in the context of this report include the proceeds from both illicit activities such as corruption (bribery and embezzlement of national wealth), criminal activity, and the proceeds of licit business that become illicit when transported across borders in contravention of applicable laws and regulatory frameworks (most commonly in order to evade payment of taxes).

In 2006, the most recent year of the GFI study, developing countries lost an estimated $858.6 billion to $1.06 trillion in illicit financial outflows.

According to the report, the average amount stashed away from India annually during 2002-06 was $27.3 billion, which works out to $136.5 billion over the five years (page 30 of the Ford Foundation Report). It is not that all this money went to Swiss banks, but to different tax and secret shelters. The share of Swiss banks in dirty money from India is at least a third due to historical and geographical reasons. Some $45 billion out of the $136.5 billion stashed away from India would have been hoarded in these five years in Swiss banks.

Notably, this figure is only for five years. More money was stashed away during the Nehruvian socialist regime. So, the loot for 55 years preceding 2002 would be several times the about money. In fact, in those days, the Indian rupee commanded a better value per dollar. So, fewer rupees could get more dollars. Hence the estimation that the Indian money stashed away may be of the order of $500 billion to $1.5 trillion.

Not only that. 'The International Narcotics Control Strategy Report - Money Laundering and Financial Crimes - March 2009' by the US department of state suggests that 30-40% of the inflows may be by Hawala market --- not accounted. During 2007-2008, according to that report, formal inflows into India were $42.6 billion and so 40% of this, namely $1.8 billion, could be reflected as illegal "flows" not captured by the law. This sum could be paid for in rupees domestically but stored in tax havens abroad.

]This implies at least $2 billion is salted away only on the hawala route. One can imagine the total including under-invoicing/ over-invoicing of exports and imports and getting the balance stored abroad and kickbacks from major defence/ civilian contracts. Then there are funds earned by artists/ entertainment/ sports people, which are not brought in but stashed abroad.

It will be of interest to note that OECD estimates the amount in tax havens to be in the range of $1.7 trillion to $11.5 trillion, on a conservative scale. The US suggests it is losing at least $100 billion per year due to tax havens.

Switzerland is specifically mentioned among tax havens as it is the largest and the oldest and also the most uncooperative. For instance, a report dated April 10, 2009 by AFP mentions that "The head of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Angel Gurria, referred in a letter to Swiss President Hans-Rudolf Merz to the "inaccuracy" of charges of unfair treatment made by Swiss officials. Switzerland has expressed its disapproval of being targeted as a tax haven by refusing to authorise a budget contribution to the OECD. "There are no 'blacklists' and the OECD did not include or 'threaten to include' Switzerland on any black list," Gurria wrote, according to a statement made available by the OECD. "We only shared the criteria that have been approved by our committees and the jurisdictions that were adopting or not the OECD standard," he said.

"As you know very well, Switzerland does not yet have a single agreement on the exchange of tax information that conforms to the OECD standard." That is the reason all eyes are on Switzerland.