BRICS Meeting on Tax Matters- highlights

Heads of Tax Authorities of the BRICS countries, namely Brazil, Russia India, China and South Africa held their virtual meeting on Tax matters from September 13 to September 14, 2021.

Key facts

• Meeting was held under the Chairship of India.
• Meeting was presided by Tarun Bajaj, Secretary of Revenue, as Head of Tax Authorities in India,

BRICS Tax Authorities

• BRICS tax authorities held discussion on the challenges faced by BRICS tax administrations in the digital era and amid the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic.
• They shared their experience and devised strategies to overcome those challenges.
• They also exchanged opinions and views on the basis of existing commitment to the principles of mutual respect, consolidation and continuity as it was highlighted during the thirteenth BRICS Summit’s “New Delhi Declaration”, which was issued on September 9, 2021.
• Tax experts also discussed potential areas of cooperation, exchanged their views and experiences.
• Discussion revolved around topics like digitisation of tax administration, leveraging technology to tackle tax evasion, changing role of tax administration, preparedness & strategies to deal with COVID-19 challenge and evolution of tax administration in order to enhance voluntary compliance by taxpayers.
• They also issued a communique at the while concluding the session.

Theme of the meeting

The Tax authorities meeting was held with the broad theme of “redefining business processes of tax administration amidst the challenges posed by COVID-19 and in the digital era”.

Month: Current Affairs - September, 2021