India is a Vice-Chair of the Peer Review Group, which is part
of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax
Purposes.
The review, which forms part of the international fight
against cross-border tax evasion, would initially start with 18 jurisdictions,
including India, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD).
“We are very happy that the Global Forum is now moving to
launching the peer reviews which are a guarantee that there are major progress
towards full tax cooperation.
OECD, which coordinates activities on international tax
standards, said the reviews would be carried out in two phases.
In the first phase, regulatory framework (of each country)
would be assessed while the second phase would look into the effective
implementation in practice.
Regarding the review procedure, the official said that each
assessment team would be made of two countries and someone from the secretariat.
“The reports would be presented to the whole Peer Review
Group (30 countries) for endorsement and then to whole Global forum (over 90
countries) for approval,” the official noted.
Other countries that would be included in the peer review
process are Australia, Barbados, Bermuda, Botswana, Canada, Cayman Islands,
Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Jamaica, Jersey, Mauritius, Monaco, Norway, Panama,
Qatar, Trinidad & Tobago.
Apart from India, Japan, Singapore and Jersey are also
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 review process is in response to the G-20 leaders’ call
to improve tax transparency worldwide, during their Pittsburgh Summit in
September 2009.
“This is the most comprehensive, in-depth review on
international tax co-operation ever . . . With these reviews we are putting
international tax co-operation under a magnifying glass. The peer review process
will identify jurisdictions that are not implementing the standards. These will
be provided with guidance on the changes required and a deadline to report back
on the improvements they have made,” the Global Forum’s Chair Mike Rawstron said
recently.
Meanwhile, the issue of exchanging tax information between
nations came into limelight after G-20 leaders pledged to crackdown on tax
havens during their London Summit in April last year.
(Source : Business Standard, dated 21-3-2010)
