India is working towards revising its double taxation avoidance treaties following allegations that many Indians have stashed away unaccounted money in Swiss banks, Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee said here on Tuesday.
“I have asked the revenue department to reopen negotiations of all 77 double taxation avoidance agreements which we have entered into so far, so that we can have real time exchange of information and can track tax evasion or stashing of black money in some other country,” Mr. Mukherjee said.
Speaking at the India Economic Summit of the World Economic Forum, the Finance Minister also said, there was a consensus among the Group of 20 (G20) nations to target tax havens.
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Mr. Mukherjee was in London on Sunday to attend a meeting of Finance Ministers of G-20 nations.
According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), India is among the 40-odd nations to have substantially implemented globally accepted norms on exchange of information on tax.
In a recent report titled, “Tax Co-operation 2009-Towards a level-playing field”, OECD had said: “India is committed to the OECD standards of transparency and exchange of information... has substantially implemented the OECD standard on exchange of information.”
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Referring to OECD, Mr. Mukherjee on Tuesday said earlier, India did not subscribe to the OECD norms on exchange of information on tax evasion because of “an institutional deficiency”.
“We have amended that,” he added.