The amnesty scheme launched before Malta adopted the euro did not succeed in luring the millions of euros belonging to Maltese citizens stashed away in secret Swiss bank accounts.

This year alone, the government will be receiving almost €500,000 from a 20 per cent withholding tax on interest imposed on holders of "foreign" accounts in Swiss banks and financial institutions, according to new data passed on by the Swiss government to the EU.

"This is the same amount received by the island prior to Malta's entry into the eurozone and shows that despite a favorable scheme introduced by the government before the euro adoption and tougher EU rules, Maltese secret account holders still preferred to retain their money away from the eyes of Malta's taxation authorities," an EU official told The Times.

It is estimated that Swiss financial institutions currently hold some €90 million in secret accounts belonging to Maltese nationals. Much of it was deposited years ago in Switzerland, renowned for its secret banking rules.

In fact, EU sources pointed out that the amount of tax withheld on Malta's behalf was greater than that of other member states such as Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia, despite these countries having a much larger population. However, through Malta's EU membership, and an agreement reached between the EU and the Swiss government, the banks were made to reveal the gains and pass on part of it to individual member states.

The agreement stipulated that for the first three years, a withholding tax of 15 per cent is charged on all interest paid to people established in the EU and holding an investment in Switzerland.

But from July, this was increased to 20 per cent and will increase again in the coming years. Of this tax, 75 per cent is passed on to the EU member states while the remaining 25 per cent is retained by Switzerland to cover administrative costs.

In exchange, the Swiss authorities are not bound to provide details of the account holders.

According to the latest figures published by the Swiss government for 2008, Switzerland will be passing to Malta the equivalent in Swiss francs of €489,601, amounting to three-quarters of the withholding tax paid by Maltese secret account holders on the interest they earn from their savings.

In total, the Swiss authorities will be passing €365 million to the 27 EU member states.