G20 countries should tackle tax havens: Oxfam
Thursday, 04 November 2010, 06:38 IST
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New Delhi: Ahead of G20 meet in South Korea, think-tank Oxfam said the bloc of 20 countries should devise methods to tackle tax havens, so that the interest of developing nations could be protected. "The G20 should honour its commitments to tackle the tax havens that illegally deprive developing countries of desperately needed resources," Oxfam said in a note ahead of G20 heads of governments meet on November 11 and 12. It further said that the tax co-operation conventions signed after the London Summit in 2009 have already proved to be weak. "The G20 needs to guarantee that in any monitoring exercise, all information requested on secrecy jurisdictions is made available, and can be shared on a multilateral and automatic exchange basis," it added. The G20 must also take overdue sanction on transparency, by delivering an exhaustive and objective list on non- cooperative jurisdictions, backed up with the promised sanctions. Tax havens, generally known to have investor-friendly tax regimes and preferred places for parking black money, came under severe criticism in the wake of the global financial meltdown. Since the G-20 leaders pledged to crackdown on tax havens to retrieve black money in 2009, many jurisdictions, including Switzerland have now become more willing to disclose details of unaccounted money. Oxfam said that tough new regulatory framework aimed at preventing future financial crisis and protecting the most vulnerable people needs to be created urgently. "The G20 has already raised the issue of IMF governance, requesting at its last meeting in Toronto that the IMF is able to demonstrate progress at the Summit in Seoul," it added.
Source: PTI
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