India elected Vice-Chair of global peer review group on taxes

New Delhi, Oct 4 (PTI) In a testimony to its growing
clout in international economic affairs, India has been
elected as a Vice Chair of a global peer review group that
will monitor the progress made by various countries in
improving transparency and exchange of tax information.

The Peer Review Group would be part of 'Global Forum on
Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes' --
a grouping of nations that works towards establishing
international tax norms.

"India has been elected as a Vice Chair of the Peer
Review Group (of the Forum) that would mainly assess the
progress made by different countries in implementing the
international tax standards," a top official of Organisation
for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) told PTI from
Paris.

Apart from India, Japan, Singapore and Jersey have also
been elected as Vice Chairs of the Peer Review Group. These
countries have been chosen for a three-year period. The Group
would be chaired by France.

The countries were elected at the meeting of the Forum
held in Mexico where delegates from over 70 jurisdictions and
international organisations participated. OECD, a grouping of
rich nations, is leading initiatives on international tax
standards.

India has a significant role in helping improve tax
transparency and the Peer Review Group would look into various
issues like governance structure and functioning norms, OECD's
Head of Division (Tax Cooperation) Pascal Saint-Amans said.

The Forum has potential 91 member countries, since many
of them are yet to be formally admitted into it, he said.

The official noted that the monitoring and peer review
would be an ongoing exercise.

The Peer Review Group would focus on in-depth monitoring
and peer review of the implementation of the standards of
transparency and exchange of information for tax purposes,
according to information available on OECD website.

The Global Forum would be chaired by Australia while
China, Germany and Bermuda have been elected as Vice Chairs.

At the Pittsburgh Summit last month, G-20 leaders pledged
to continue their fight against tax havens and also welcomed
the participation of developing countries in the Forum.

"The main focus of the Forum's work will be to improve
tax transparency and exchange of information so that countries
can fully enforce their tax laws to protect their tax base.

"We stand ready to use countermeasures against tax havens
from March 2010," the recent G-20 communique had said.

The issue of exchanging tax information between countries
came into the limelight after the G-20 leaders pledged to
crackdown on tax havens during their London Summit in April.

In April this year, OECD published a list of countries
which are not fully-compliant with global tax standards.

Pascal Saint-Amans said there has been significant
progress since the grey list was published and many countries
have committed to complying with the international tax
standards.

Now, we are moving towards implementation of the
commitments made, especially those related to exchange of tax
information between countries, the official added.

Recently, OECD removed Switzerland, which is known for
its banking secrecy, from the grey list of tax havens. The
country was taken off the list after it signed 12 double
taxation agreements with nations, including the US and the UK.

India, where there have been demands for long for steps
towards bringing back any possible black money stashed in
Swiss banks, will also begin talks in December for a new
double taxation treaty with Switzerland. PTI RAM
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