India dislikes OECD info exchange standard

Recently we blogged our rather harsh response to the OECD's claim that its deeply flawed information exchange standard is "universally endorsed." As if any more evidence were needed in support of our argument, see this in India's Economic Times.

India will pitch for deeper tax information exchange agreements at the G-20 to make such pacts more effective in facilitating the flow of crucial data on tax evasion.

New Delhi is expected to present a detailed paper on the issue at the forthcoming Seoul meeting, urging that domestic laws of countries must support such agreements for effective information exchange. “These agreements should ensure that there is actual flow of information and benefits for countries entering them (agreements) in checking evasion,” said a finance ministry official privy to the discussions.

The proposal for a multilateral information exchange comes even as India has initiated talks with Switzerland for revising its tax treaty to include tax information exchange agreements, or TIEA, to get details on likely tax evaders. India also wants improvement in the quality of information that is shared under TIEAs to make such agreements more meaningful. The current TIEA rules allow exchange of information only on specific queries in respect of an ongoing tax investigation. Fishing or general queries are not allowed."

Quite. As we have said, our proposals are on the way to becoming the emerging international standard. For more background, click here. See ActionAid's blog post on this here.