If India joins the move by the OECD and G20 nations and the US and UK and gets a convention signed by the G20 with the different tax havens, particularly Switzerland, then the recovery process can be much shorter and successful on a large scale.

Five years ago they were the cynosure of the financial experts and were called innovative or offshore financial centers. Financial experts used to exhort other countries to follow the example of these innovative financial centers and emulate them in offering appropriate privacy and imaginative products. They are the tax havens where the ill-gotten wealth of tax evaders of many countries is hoarded. The recession in the west has changed the situation beyond imagination. From being innovative financial centers they have become secretive centers or jurisdictions and every leader in the West is after them. These tax havens are now in the news since developed economies like USA, Germany, France, etc. want them to return the ill-gotten wealth from their citizens.

The US government as well its Congress are most concerned about these tax havens due to the severe economic crisis faced by the country and also due to pressure from sections of economists etc. to `clean up' the global financial system. There are also concerns regarding the financing of terror groups by some of the tainted money from tax havens.

A detailed discussion on tax havens are provided by Internal Revenue Service of United States Department of Treasury in a paper on "Abusive Offshore Tax Avoidance Schemes -Talking Points During 2008. I quote extensively from this paper:

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