G20 Countries seek to crackdown on tax havens, terror financing

The G20 countries including India have sought a crackdown on tax heavens, shell companies and terror financing in the wake of the ‘Panama Papers’ scandal.
In this regard a communiqué was issued by G20 countries after meeting of its Finance Ministers and Governors of Central Banks on the sidelines of the annual Spring Meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank at Washington.
Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan attended the meeting on behalf of India.
Key highlights of G20 meeting

• G20 countries called for increasing financial transparency and sharing of key information in a timely manner to crackdown on tax heavens, shell companies and terror financing
• Focused on fully implementation of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) standards on transparency as an essential part for countries and their jurisdictions.
• Called on all countries to join its efforts including through swift and effective implementation of FATF standards.
• It also focused on the new Consolidated Strategy on Combating Terrorist Financing and provisions of the UN Security Council Resolution 2253.
• Called on countries which have not yet committed to implement the standard on automatic exchange of information by 2017 or 2018 to do so without delay. It also asked them to sign the Multilateral Convention.

Month: Current Affairs - April, 2016