Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has joined the G20 leadership in fighting money laundering, tax evasion and terror financing while calling upon tax havens to become transparent in this regard and share information. The meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors held at Delhi on 16th April. The was attended by Jaitley and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan from India, a joint proclamation also warned non-cooperative jurisdictions with “defensive” steps.
Key Features of the meeting:
• It has said that it is important to maintain and improve transparency global financial system to prevent the misuse of such entities for illegal acts such as corruption, tax evasion, terror financing and money laundering.
• They also mandate that the OECD (Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development) working with G20 countries to establish objective criteria within July meeting to identify non-cooperative jurisdictions with respect to tax transparency.
• Defensive measures will be considered by G20 against non-cooperative jurisdictions if progress as assessed by the Global Forum is not made.
• The communique comes when another global expose has surfaced on people with accounts in tax havens, including top politicians. With 500 Indians, too, named in the list, dubbed the “Panama Papers” a probe is currently on by a multi-agency team.
• India does not have any official estimation about the quantum of black money stashed away by its nationals abroad, but unofficial estimate puts it somewhere between $466 billion and $1.4 trillion.
The meeting have enhanced the cooperation in tackling money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism through increased information sharing and cooperation.
